Nancy Mehl’s Free Fall is this week’s Reader Friday. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get the post up–I had meant to finish reading Free Fall while I was in Florida…wait a minute while I get up off the floor from laughing. But, to wind down, I started reading where I left off before I left, and as tired as I was, I read until past midnight to find out what happened! It was so good. Here’s the first line: The screams of people buckled into rides designed to either terrify or thrill them rang out in the darkness.”
But first the scripture–I felt I really needed this today…I’m walking very slowly today and I’m depending on God to strengthen me.
Now for Nancy Mehl’s Free Fall. Here’s the cover and back copy:
Someone has been abducting women with long dark hair across Virginia. When the FBI is called in to help, Alex Donovan, a behavioral analyst, is tasked with putting together a profile. She’s aided by her friend and colleague Logan Hart, but he has been acting strangely and won’t say why. When the kidnapper demands that Alex meet him at an abandoned amusement park in exchange for the location of all his captives, she takes the bait. But the meeting proves to be a trap, and the building she’s in explodes.
Finding herself imprisoned with several other women, Alex works to think one step ahead of her captor. But the more Logan and the BAU learn about the kidnapper, the more they fear Alex may not make it out alive this time.
My take:
Oh, my goodness. This book grabbed me from that first sentence and didn’t let go–even though I had to leave it half-finished when I went on vacation. It almost killed me that I couldn’t get time to read while I was on vacation! But with two under the age of 4, there is no time to read or do anything but do what they want to do. lol I did finish it last night and wanted to get the review up today.
Alex Donovan is a great heroine. She’s dedicated to helping people and risked her life to free the women the Ghost Rider kidnapped. And Logan Hart was helpless to help her. They both had to rely on God. I loved the way they influenced several of the other characters by their walk with Him.
The tension is nonstop in this story, and it has twists and turns that will satisfy any suspense reader. The romance has been building since the first book and there is a nice resolution at the end. And the FBI information and the way the BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit) works is really interesting. Nancy did her research! One thing I learned is the BAU isn’t like Criminal Minds–most of the time these agents do not go out into the field, but instead work up a profile for the field agents to use.
Free Fall is a great book, one I think suspense readers will love! I’m hoping there will be at least one more with Alex and Logan!
Do you like learning things in the fiction you read? Leave a comment or the first line of the book you’re reading and I’ll enter you in a drawing for a book from my library!
Nancy Mehl's Free Fall is this week's Reader Friday. Don't miss this great book. Leave a comment and I'll enter you in a drawing for a book from my library. Share on X
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Comments 46
I do enjoy learning things when I read. I am reading Cooking the Books by Chelsea Thomas. It’s great fun. The first sentence: Nothing ruins a quaint, small-town festival like finding a frozen corpse during the sled race.
Author
Oh, I love that first line, Priscilla! That’s one I’ll have to read.
Am I the first this week? That’s very unusual. I love the picture and verse. I never read that verse without thinking of an old southern Gospel song, “Teach Me, Lord, to Wait.”
I’ll be looking for Nancy’s new book. I have enjoyed every one I’ve read.
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It’s so good, Edward…otherwise I never would have stayed up until past midnight to finish it last night!
I’m amazed you finished and got this up. Well-done, I guess. But get the rest you need, too.
Author
I didn’t intend to read until midnight last night, Delores, but once I started, I couldn’t stop.
I love learning things in fiction.
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Me, too, Judy!
Pat, I hope your slow moving today is from happy exhaustion spent with your family. Yours is well chosen Scripture for all of us, and a great photo to match.
I love learning from what I read. It doesn’t matter whether it’s from fiction or not.
I’m stumped for a first line to share. I just finished Frank DiBianca’s “Laser Trap” from which I quoted the first line last week. Good book by the way. I started “Free Fall” just minutes ago, but you beat me to the first line for that one.
Author
It’s a great line. I’m going to start Frank’s book tonight, Tim. And yes, it’s a happy exhaustion. I really miss my family even though I talk to them every day. 🙂
Hi, yes, I always love to learn things that I didn’t know. Nancy Mehl’s book sounds and looks very intriguing , I love suspense books. Thank you so much for sharing about this book. Thank you for the chance. Have a great weekend and stay safe.
Author
Alicia, it is a great book, and I hope your house is clean when you start it because everything will fall by the wayside when you do. 🙂
I hope you had a wonderful vacation Pat! Love the photo and the verse is a favorite of mine! Looking forward to reading “Free Fall”. I enjoyed the two previous books in this series
Yes, I enjoy learning new things in novels!
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Me, too, MS Barb.
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This is a great series, Mary! I always look forward to Nancy’s books.
I, too think of the same song that Edward did when I see that verse quoted.
I read Free Fall and loved it, in fact I love the whole series. I asked Nancy if this was the last book in the series and she said yes…. but we can hope that Alex and Logan show up in her new series, yes?
I picked Free Fall as my first line today, too but I took mine from Chapter 1, instead of the prologue:
“The abandoned amusement park reminded Logan of an aging bride waiting for a bridegroom who never came. “
Now that makes me think of Miss Haversham from Great Expectations!
Happy reading everyone!
Author
Paula, I loved that line from the first chapter and almost used it, but decided I needed to use the very first sentence in the book. Nancy is a fabulous writer!
I love learning new things in novels. It feels like I am traveling back in history sometimes as well as exploring unfamiliar places.
Author
That is one thing I love about historicals, Maryann. I remember reading The Last of the Mohicans when I was a kid and for days I would play in the woods behind our house and pretend I was in the book…
Hmm. Learning from novels is a novel way of learning. 🙂 Sorry, I just couldn’t resist, Maryann. I agree completely.
Author
Love it, Tim! I often use the research other authors do in my own writing if I know they’ve done their homework. lol
I do learn from reading and that is always nice. I have been reading some Christmas novellas by Stacey Weeks. This is from Mistletoe Movie Star: The radio host’s smooth timbre filled the car’s interior, “It’s getting slick out there, folks. Today is a good day to curl up at home with the Holiday Channel’s latest movie, Countdown to Christmas, starring Jo-”
Author
That sounds like a great Christmas story, Gloria!
Love this scripture. I just finished reading Long Way Home by Lynn Austin and it was fabulous. Thank you for sharing. Happy weekend.
Author
I’ll have to find Lynn’s book, Lucy!
Yes, I like learning new things in books, especially if they relate to crime scene info.
“A sharp clatter jerked Grace Callahan out of the novel she was reading.” This is the first line in A Secret to Die For, by Lisa Harris.
Great verse to cling to, Pat. A definite favorite. Praying you get some rest in the midst of all the fun. Blessings!
Author
While driving isn’t tiring when I’m doing it, after a thousand miles, it leaves me tired, Barbara. I actually feel like I’m still driving. lol But it was well worth the trip. I’ll be returning in September, this time to South Florida.
Oh, I so agree, Pat. The tired hits when the drive is over.
I remember when I used to swim in the ocean. When I got out my arms always felt like they were still swimming. I wonder if it was the salt water that dried on my arms.
Author
Probably, Barbara! lol Oh, and it was only 1600 miles. 🙂
I enjoy learning new things from fiction books. I’m reading Free Fall right now. It’s so good. I always enjoy Nancy Mehl’s books. Beautiful picture! The verse fits it so well.
Author
Thanks, Erika! And I love Nancy’s books. Can’t wait for the next one…
I love learning new things in books I read
Author
And it’s a lot more fun in fiction to me, Shelia. lol.
Sunreach by Brandon Sanderson
” The day the delver came, I stood staring up at the stars.”
Author
That sounds interesting, BN!
Love the scripture and photo!
Chaos. Driftwood Bay – Irene Hannon
Enjoy your weekend!
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Thanks, Caryl. Irene Hannon’s books sounds intriguing!
The screams of people buckled into rides designed to either terrify or thrill them rang out in the darkness. Yes, it’s Nancy’s book, Free Fall. I’ve just finished reading it! I did NOT want to put it down!!!
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I know, Donna! Wasn’t it wonderful!!
I have enjoyed Nancy’s “Kaely Quinn Profiler” series so I’m very certain I would love this one too! I also have a couple of older books of hers on my bookshelf just waiting for me to pick them up.
I did a re-read on the first three books of Karen Kingsbury “Redemption” series and enjoyed them just as much as the first time I read them. Now I’ve started a Rom-Com by Liwen Ho (Indie published Christian author) that I’m very much looking forward to. It’s the fourth book of “The Fab Forties” series about Cassie who I’ve been anxious to meet 🙂 What I love about this series, just as it’s named, the characters are over 40. I can more relate to them rather than characters in their 20’s or 30’s, lol! 😀
Okay, first line from “Love at Second Sight” (made me pick myself up off the floor laughing). Liwen has a way with words & a wit that would make even the most stoic person chuckle!
“I miss the days when the only thing I had to worry about was finding leg warmers to match my scrunchie” (Cassie is very much an introvert, lol!)
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I love that first line, Trixi! And I like the idea of a series with someone older than 30. lol
The first line of chapter one in Mastering Suspense Structure and Plots by Jane Cleland is a quote: I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.–Maya Angelou
Author
I love that line and actually heard Maya Angelou say it at a writing conference once, Sally Jo.
“I stand rigid, arms pinned to my sides as my mother wraps me in a loose hug in Gram’s foyer.”
Hope Beyond the Waves by Heidi Chiavaroli
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Natalya, I’ve been meaning to read one of Heidi’s books!! Maybe once I get these edits in. 🙂