Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh

29 reviews

sharkfan's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Very dark and very graphic deaths.  This is something I usually don’t like, and didn’t here either - but, I couldn’t put this down.  I had to know what happened next.   I’ll give the author credit, it’s a great story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Outing, and Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Self harm, Cannibalism, Stalking, Car accident, Abandonment, and War

mrs_faith_owens's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No

4.75

How can you have a fair trial when the real killer is actually on the jury? Guess what, you can’t! And since the killer is on the jury, he has a front row seat to tweak the narrative as needed to make sure the defendant goes to jail. 

Thirteen is the fourth book in the Eddie Flynn series, but it functioned well as a standalone. I really enjoyed all the twists and turns in this book, however, it is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. If you have issues with psycho killers’ POV, breaking bones, or eyeball trauma, I would not recommend this book. 

That being said, this book is one of a few I’ve read where the author combines a killer’s point of view with wild twists and turns that keep you guessing until the end, and Steve Cavanagh did a masterful job. This book might be a good read for someone who enjoyed Never Lie by Frieda McFadden, but can stomach police brutality and graphic violence. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder

laurzj82's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction and Alcohol

kirstencholewa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Well-written, intense legal thriller

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Police brutality, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Self harm, and Fire/Fire injury

sproutlaaar's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Stalking

rmesquirrel's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This story was amazing! I audible reacted throughout this book. It was so well written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

khowick24's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Wow.. I am impressed. This was a really well written book. Felt like I was reading a law and order episode but better. The main guy is a sick son of a B.. I enjoyed following with the plot and all the twists and turns. Some I didn’t even know until the very last few pages. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Suicide, and Police brutality

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I randomly saw this book being recommended on a bookstagram reel. The poster said this was the type of book where you could clearly visualize everything. And the synopsis sounded so cool and I'm such a sucker for unique concepts especially when it comes to thriller novels so I picked it up. 

Note this book is told in dual POV, the killer, and Eddie Flynn. When I first saw this book, I thought it was a standalone, but I later found that it was the 4th book in a series but the original poster noted that they read this as a standalone so I proceeded to do the same. And after reading this book, I agree you could read this as a standalone and be fine.

As for the story, honestly, I'm such a sucker for court cases in shows. Law & Order SVU is one of my favorite shows, so it was nice to see all that in book form and so much more. This book definitely made me want to get more into legal thrillers.

This book was crazy! From start to finish a lot of wacky things were happening! And this being my first Eddie Flynn novel, it was really enjoyable to get a look into his character. Him being an ex-con turned lawyer is such a cool form of characterization. As well as gaining more facets about him such as his history with drinking, marital issues, and his push and pull towards crazy legal situation. As well as his relationship with Harry. For this being the fourth book in a series, I feel like the author handled the main character's archetype very well. I really enoyed how this book was written and by the end, I found myself missing Eddie. We really went through a lot with him in this book. 

Kane was something else. Now I'm not aware of the validity of all of Kane's mannerisms and psychosis but the way the author wrote it made it very believable. Kane was such a methodical and innately nefarious individual. It was very intriguing to be in his head and read about him and his backstory.

The plot did EAT in this book! The concept was so cool, it would've made a great plot for a show or movie. Of course, the court part of this book doesn't really start till you're halfway through, but the first half was still intriguing, but it was more build-up than anything else which kinda bored me a little bit (but that's on me), but one the court part did come they DELIVERED. It was so fun to read and the original poster was so right, when reading you can most definitely visualize everything that's going on. Again, I really commend the author for bringing this to life and being so descriptive.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I felt like the ending was a bit lackluster considering the type of individual Kane was made out to be.

Him dying by like five gunshots felt so anticlimactic. I wish Kane and Eddie interacted more during that final scene and it was more of a slow burn. And I hate that we didn't get Kane's final thoughts as he was dying that would've been so great to be in his head and see how he was defeated.

The twists in these books are good too. Steve seems like a very meticulous writer, making sure that most if not every dot is left uncrossed.

I predicted Holten being involved as the story was coming along, but I had no idea of his full involvement. I really felt like the twists tied the story together well.

After reading this book, and getting a taste of Steve's writing, I just might read more from this and might dive into this series at one point. What a fun and entertaining read!

Note: I highly recommend the audiobook for this one! The narrator did a great job differentiating the voices.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Mental illness, Stalking, Death of parent, and Outing

aparker89's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

leligavi's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I liked Eddie, but this really isn't my genre and I felt that while I was listening to it. I thought it was interesting and I was captivated by the actual court proceedings but it just felt like he had an answer for everything. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence and Police brutality