Identity Theft

Be careful when reading this book. The author draws you into a maze of mirrors with so many twists and turns, you’re not sure what’s happening. Detective Kenny Elliot had planned on retirement, but case comes to him that he can’t resist.

Identity Theft is my first exposure to Bob Avey’s four-book Detective Kenny Elliot mystery series. This one works pretty well as a standalone, though, so if you’re new to the series like me, don’t worry too much about just jumping in at this point. I’ve done this enough times now to know how easy it is to go back and read the preceding books in the order in which they were published – in fact, that kind of binge-reading has a special appeal all its own. I did find myself wondering a bit about some of the references to Kenny’s past life and career, but not enough for that to hamper my overall enjoyment of the book.

Kenny Elliot is a Tulsa police detective who doesn’t intend to be one for much longer. But Kenny, who has investigatory skills bordering on the supernatural, is so effective an investigator that his boss refuses to accept his letter of resignation. Now, Kenny is the kind of guy who will always have a cop-mentality whether he wears a badge or not, but he is also a loner who relies more on intuition and gut-feel to get the job done than on anything else. Needless to say, this ensures that Kenny will never be nominated for Employee-of-the-Month honors.

Because of his general loyalty to the department and personal loyalty to his boss, Kenny decides to take some time off to reconsider his resignation – but he’s barely out the station door when he witnesses something so peculiar that all the warning bells in his mind start going off at once. He senses something very wrong about the assassination scene he sees playing out right before his eyes, including the fact that the potential assassin misses his target from pointblank range. But even more bizarrely, both the shooter and his intended victim seem equally confused about what is going on around them. Then when it turns out that both Kenny and his pastor have ties to the intended victim of the shooting, Kenny decides to go private until he figures out exactly what is happening in his city.

And that’s when things get very, very weird.

Bottom Line: Identity Theft is a mashup of several genres: crime fiction, thriller, fantasy, horror, and touches of Christian novel. Kenny Elliot is no ordinary police detective and the man he is chasing is most certainly no ordinary criminal. The most often asked question in this one is, “Do you have any idea what it feels like to die in someone else’s body?” Well, do you?

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This twisty story will turn you onto your head and you won't know what to believe. I had a fun time with it and the characters and I want to read more from this author! Its one of those stories that you need to pay attention to it at all costs or you will miss something!!

This is my first Det Elliot novel, and it has an incredible number of twists, so it's not a light read. But it is pretty engaging and interesting. Even though it's categorized as a thriller, it's really a mash-up of several genres including "weird" (even though that's not a genre). Recommended for a brain teasing read.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

Thanks to #netgalley and Black Rose Writing for allowing me to read and review Identity Theft by Bob Avey. I really liked this book but it’s hard to describe. It’s part Colombo and part Fringe. You never know which way or where the twists and turns are going to take you but it’s a very enjoyable ride!