Daughters of Bad Men

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

Jamie and Cookie run a PI agency (although goodness knows how they make any money, given their willingness to take a week off to work for free) and use their skills when Jamie's estranged half-brother Brian asks her to find his daughter Kristin. Brian is a con man and he cut off contact with Jamie when she tried to persuade Kristin to leave her father and go straight.

Things I liked about this novel:

- the title is excellent;
- the plot makes sense and is easy to follow.

Things I liked less:

- there is a fair amount of repetition and many places where a paragraph really hammers home a point which could just as easily have been expressed in a single sentence;
- poor Deuce (of whom we heard far too much) surely leads the unhealthiest lifestyle of any dog ever (and I also wish Jamie or Cookie would eat a vegetable or a piece of fruit occasionally);
- I don't know anything about Texan gambling laws, but why is Erin running an illegal bookie operation? Can't she just register and do it legally? Probably my personal prejudices showing through, but I don't see enabling elderly people in a retirement home to gamble on a weekly basis is quite such a saintly act of service as it is portrayed as being here;
- I wouldn't have read this if I had known it was one of those books where a mob/crime family make everything right and the hero/heroine is very grateful to them because it was the only way...

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

the title gives you a hint to what lies beneath this story, daughters of bad men is just that...but they have one thing in common..those bad men have some good daughters...

kristen is hiding from her family, and daddy wants her found...once the hunt is on..a different story begins...what at first is just a missing person turns into something different.....can they sort out their own feelings and get behind what is really going on or will it turn bad...

some great characters in this book, well written and the twists and turns that happen keep you guessing the outcome...

A great book that was a fast paced thriller. The plot kept me hanging on every page. A great storyline.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Laura Oles for the copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

Jamie and Cookie are unconventional private eyes in a small coastal town in Texas. Jamie is the daughter of scam artists and uses the methods they taught her to get close to people as a PI. Her brother Brian has followed in the family's footsteps and uses his teenaged daughter to run his cons. When she disappears, Brian calls on Jamie to find her. Jamie reluctantly agrees to help and learns the worst about her family. Cookie is her loyal sidekick with a few family of his own. Together they conquer evil in an engaging way. Can't wait for the next installment!

This was a really great interesting story about 2 PI’s trying to figure out what happened to the one PI’s neice. I enjoyed all the back and forth between Jamie and Cookie and how close their relationship was. The plot kept me intrigued the entire book as they sleuthed to figure out what happened to Kristen. I liked the mob angle too. It was a really good story and I enjoyed the characters.

Daughters of bad men by laura oles.
Jamie Rush understands what it takes to disappear because her parents taught her that long ago.  Leveraging her knowledge of why and how people run from their own lives, Jamie has built a business based on bringing those in hiding back to answer for their actions. She takes pride in using her somewhat shady skills to work both inside and outside the law.
A fantastic read with great characters. I couldn't put it down. Didn't expect that. 5*.

This was a great debut ! Love Jamie and Cookie and love the small town feeling of this book. I have nothing negative to say about this book it had everything I enjoy about a good book... great character, good mystery and a captivating story. Look forward to reading more by this author!

Jamie is a private investigator and Skip tracer. She comes from a family who taught to be an con artist as well as her brother Brian. Brian has a child, Kristen. When Kristen was in trouble a lot, Brian had Jamie take care of her. Somehow Brian turns Kristen against Jamie. Jamie leaves. Her parents and family consider her a traitor to the family when she stopped being a con artist for them. Now she works with her partner, Kookie. Kookie is a large man so most people have an innate fear of him. When Jamie gets calls from Brian, she is asked to help him find his daughter Kirsten. She has disappeared. At first Jamie says no but then changes her mind. Jamie and Kookie search for her niece. Do they find her? How is Kirsten? Why?

This is an awe inspiring mystery. The characters are well developed as well as the suspense in this mystery. Jamie is someone I would want in my corner if I needed help. I hope she continues on with these characters in future books! Enjoy a great mystery!

PI Jamie Rush and her best friend and partner, PI Cookie are pulled into Jamie's family problems. She grew up with a father who was a con man; her half-brother joined that life and now is calling Jamie to find his daughter, Kristen, who has also participated in some potentially dangerous scams.

Jamie has changed her life and only works on this side of legal. As much as she really has nothing to do with her family, she finds it hard to ignore her brother's request for help.

Things change when she does find Kristen. Kristen is dead of an overdose ... although Jamie knows she was clean. She finds a crumpled up $2 bill in her back pocket ... the calling card of a drug family.

So who, exactly, killed Kristen? Was this is warning to someone else in the family? What was Kristen into that someone felt compelled to kill her?

As Jamie begins to dig into Kristen's life, she finds her nieces secrets. That truth will put a target on Jamie's and Cookie's backs.

This is an exceptional debut novel. This is not a gritty police procedural; it is not a cozy, but somewhere in between. There is no romance ... rather the love Jamie has for her chosen family... Cookie, who lives in Hawaiian shirts, Erin, the bookie's daughter, Marty who runs a bar and Deuce ... an extremely lovable (and spoiled) 4-footed, furry friend.

The book is well-written, with wonderful characters that you want to see more of. It's a riveting story with a lot of suspense, making it hard to put down until the very last page.

Many thanks to the author / Red Adept Publishing / Netgalley for the advanced digital copy. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

"Jamie’s mind was lost in thoughts of revenge or justice; she hardly cared which."

Jamie Rush has done her best to put her con artist family behind her. She's happy working as a skip tracer with her partner, Cookie Hinojosa, a huge man that loves Hawaiian shirts. She also has her best buddy Deuce, a bulldog she won in a bet.

She tries to avoid her family but gets involved when her half-brother calls her, concerned about the welfare of his daughter, her niece. And events go downhill quickly after that.

I loved the partnership between Jamie and Cookie. I liked their best friend who is a bookie for seniors. I loved the dog and I loved the location - a fictitious town on the coast of Texas.

This was a fast-paced thriller. There weren't a huge amount of surprises but the story was written so well that it still kept my interest from beginning to ending. I would like to see a series from these characters.

I received this book from Red Adept Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read the book and leave an unbiased review.

I mostly enjoyed this book. I know, I know -- this is lackluster praise for a book I give four stars. Here is why I loved it:

The plot is incredibly thought out. She did the work involved in creating a book of this nature, and it shows.

The movement and flow of the story is really well done. I finished this in two sittings.

I liked almost all the characters.


I did not like the writing style itself. I don't know if it's because it was a tad over-written, or if three oft-repeated words were repeated a little too often, but I have to take off a star because the prose itself aggravated me.

But seriously, don't keep this from reading the book. It's worth reading.