Playing Dead by Allison Brennan

The Lucy Kincaid series was selected as a group read in one of my Goodreads groups and we determined, because of character crossovers, we needed to first read her earlier series in publication order.

Tom O’Brien was convicted of murdering his wife and her lover 15 years ago. His daughter, Claire, was the principal witness at his trial as she walked in on the murder scene shortly after he discovered them. Tom was one of the San Quentin prisoners who escaped following the earthquake but he covertly helped law enforcement capture all of the others. Now he’s singularly focused on convincing Claire of his innocence, even if it means his recapture. In the meantime, FBI Special Agent Matt Bianchi has gotten close to her, posing as a writer, trying to get information regarding her father’s whereabouts. He’s now conflicted because not only is he convinced that Tom was framed but his duplicity will ultimately end his relationship with Claire who he’s come to love.

This was a gnarly, complex case that had so many tentacles and moving parts and it was tough trying to thread them together. But that’s a good thing because it kept me in the story and highly intrigued. Matt’s duplicity with Claire was a disaster in the waiting and that added a high level of tension because these two really needed to work together and I knew the impending explosion would threaten everything. It took me most of the story to assemble it all and yet there were still twists I never envisioned.

There are lots of characters but it’s not hard to keep up with them. The identity of the “assassin” was another poser that had me going back and forth with who he might be. The ending was as climactic as I’d anticipated and it delivered. I loved Claire who was skilled, fearless and street smart. While I was disgusted with Matt’s lie to her, it was mitigated somewhat by his absolute devotion to her so the romance worked. This story stands alone fairly well but I’m glad I read the first two as they really created a great foundation. It’s really good and brings a satisfying conclusion to the original prison break.

Book Info

• Release Date: September 30, 2008
• Series: Prison Break Trilogy #3
• Page Numbers: 482
• Publisher: Ballantine Books

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo