Deep Down Dead (1) (Lori Anderson) Paperback – Box set, April 1, 2017

I pretty much reach this straight through. Fast moving with all kinds of twists and turns. Thoroughly enjoyable. I will start the next book right away.

….. but disappointed that yet another author has to resort to episodesFinish the darn story - getting as bad as tv

Happened to have this pop up in my e-mails from Amazon. Fun, interesting main character with some attitude in Lori Anderson. An ex-stripper who is now a bounty hunter isn’t your run of the mill lead. JT adds as well to the interest. I ordered the next 3 in the series when I finished! I give very few 5s so a 4 from me is high praise.

Nothing new her in character development or plot. The sprinkling of British spellings and word usage is jarring. It was difficult to find any character believable as they appeared to be caricatures of what someone Across The Pond has heard and at the same time you would have no idea that the characters are from the South or the places mentioned were Southern; wait she did mention gumbo and Carnivale in reference to Savannah. Mmmm.... There are no surprises about what's going to happen. I'm sorry but I can't recommend this book and I hate that. Ms. Broadribb has a pleasant if dull writing style and I hope another Editor helps her find an authentic voice and she sticks with what she knows a bit better next time.

This is a well written, action packed book with strong characters and story line. That is the good stuff. The parts of the book that I found hard to enjoy had to do with a child pornography ring, working in a nude dance club and the violence. I will not read more books in this series. I did enjoy her recent series set in Florida.

I bought this book on the basis of an article he wrote about sex scenes in detective novels. Two of the female authors i read firsthand enjoyed their characters flawed but strongUnfortunately the female character here is just weak. You spend the entire book wanting to tell at her - please don't be a stereotype. But no hope.The novel is pretty bad with no real feeling of what you would do if your child was kidnapped and You were a professional.Becomes more improbable the longer the book continue sSets up a sequel resolves nothing. By the end you feel cheated.Read the first 100 pages and then stop as the car goes off the road. Some great setup worth reading, but not worth finishing.

If you’re about to read Deep Down Dead, bring along snacks and something to drink because you won’t want to leave your favorite chair for hours. Oh, you should also strap on a seatbelt.To describe this book as fast-paced would be an understatement. It revs like a ’68 Mustang and easily handles the hairpin curves in the storyline.The characters are believable, especially Lori Anderson, the strong female lead, who does all she can to pay her nine-year-old daughter’s medical bills while keeping a roof over their heads. The exciting tale is set primarily in Florida, with its amusement parks, gators and occasionally strange vibe. Without giving too much away, Lori is a good-looking, quick-witted, single mom, and a top-rated bounty hunter, armed and capable. So don’t mess with her or her kid. Yes, she comes with emotional baggage, but her backstory intertwines seamlessly with the other characters, making this book a standout. Five stars for Steph Broadribb.David Liscio -- author of Deadly Fare

The book started at slow. But, it became very dramatic and hard to put down. I look forward to reading more books with the same characters.

OMG!!!  This book completely blew my mind!I wish I could tell everyone to stop whatever they are doing right now and read this!It is everything I love in a book. It held my attention from the opening page and didn't let me go until the end - and then I just sat and thought.... and thought some more... What can I say?  It is fast paced, gripping, full of suspense and intrigue. It does not let up in speed or tension at all.Lori is a kick-ass bounty hunter. I wouldn't want to ever be on her wrong side! She is the type of woman who will stop at nothing to protect those she loves, especially Dakota, her nine-year-old daughter who is battling leukaemia.  The only way Lori can pay the medical bills for Dakota's hospital treatments is to take a job out of state which is high-paying however it is not going to be easy (nothing ever is in Lori's life).  Lori's job is to retrieve JT, who happens to be Lori's ex-mentor from a decade ago, who appears to have gotten himself into trouble.  Three days on the road and no option but to take her daughter with her... what could go wrong??I cannot describe the level of emotions I felt whilst reading this book. It really gets the adrenaline going! The author is excellent at describing each scene as it happens which gives the true feeling of actually being there in the car with them. It was almost like watching it on TV. I read on the authors website that she trained as a bounty hunter whilst researching for this book and you can tell. The scenes are so vivid and real and scary - WOW I am completely blown away today!

It's quite amazing how often I had to remind myself that this relentless jackhammer of a thriller is a debut novel. Steph Broadribb is a British author who has pulled off an American first-person narrative voice so convincingly you can hear the twang, and her well-rounded, three-dimensional characters are swept along by a plot that sinks gator teeth in you every time you try to put the book down. It's got all the ingredients of the country music that would surely be the soundtrack to the movie - which ought to be made - a hard-working momma, a doomed romance and a sick child - but they come together in a story that's anything but corny. Tough female bounty hunter Lori Anderson, desperate for cash to pay her daughter's medical bills, takes on a lucrative job, even though it means re-opening a door into a past that haunts her. In no time at all, she, her daughter, and the man she has to bring in are up to their necks in danger and the reader had better buckle up. Lori is a great character, hard as nails and prepared to make painful choices, but human and vulnerable at the same time. Other thriller writers need to look over their shoulders, and if this book isn't at least short-listed for some tasty awards, I will be astonished. A new author who is definitely one to watch.

Now listen up, people, this is the start to an absolute stonker of a series. And the best news, the other three books get better and better.Ms Broadribb has a supremely readable yet exciting writing style that grabs you and makes you read ‘just one more chapter…just one more chapter…’ In fact, her writing structurally is effervescent and involving and almost every chapter ends on a totally corking cliffhanger. This is pure escapist and involving thriller writing.I stumbled on this by complete chance and I am so glad I did. In these strangest of times, living in lockdown, there’s no reason us avid readers can’t fly far, far away from here on the wings of a good book. What a gift that is, and how grateful we should be to those authors who help us achieve that. This is just that kind of series .If you enjoy fast moving, exciting prose with brilliant characters and a strong female lead you’ll be in your bookish element. If I tell you I read all four, back to back over a week and then whimpered in distress that there were no more, well, you’ll get an idea of how exciting, absorbing and easy to immerse in these are.Now I’m going to level with you, and Ms Broadribb, if you’re reading this, please get to the end of the review before you get upset by what I am going to say next… The first book, as so often can happen in series, is not the best of the four. The other three are significantly better. Why? Well, the first hundred or so pages of this first one feels like Lori, the main character is being manoeuvred by the author to be what she later becomes in a very slightly over-explained and awkward way.Initially, the gears don’t quite smoothly mesh as Lori takes her journey to become a self-assured, skilled and brave bounty hunter/fixer for hire. The Lori we meet at the start is a long way from the Lori we get as the book goes on, and eons away from the Lori we get in books 2, 3 and 4 where it feels like she has become her true self. Now I’m all for character development arcs but this felt a bit clunky to begin with. Thankfully, as soon as the ‘backstory’ is (slightly over) established, the story and the action kicks off big-time. So stick in there and you’ll be so glad you did. This has been one of the freshest and most involving finds I’ve come across for a while.As the series progresses we get a resourceful, intelligent, intellectually and physically competent heroic role model to rank up there with the greats; Charlie Fox (although she lacks Charlie’s military skill) and Jack Reacher (although Lori is more morally attuned and more real than the ‘hero who walks the earth’ that Reacher has now become).If you’re a fan of Zoe Sharp’s excellent Charlie Fox series (some of which I have also reviewed) then you’re in for a similar action-heavy, page turning ride of female empowerment. However Lori lacks Charlie’s formal background , scary-awesome skill and training and the stories in this series by Ms Broadribb are more focused and smaller in scale although no less fast moving. If you’ve not yet tried Ms Sharp, I envy you…check her out. Buy ALL the Charlie, now.If you’ve also read the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich which also deals with an initially anachronistic, fledgling bounty hunter and with which this series is inevitably compared, then I’d say this series is much better and far less ‘chic-litty’ ( a term I abhor) If you take Ms Plum and you cut the wisecracks and the kooky sidekicks and the bonkers bits, provide a faster pace and a less ‘girly’ lead, you’re close to what this series is like. In my opinion, this series is MUCH better than that of Ms Evanovich. I’d probably end up punching Stephanie Plum but I’d love to spend time with Lori.I sincerely hope you give this a try. I also sincerely hope that Ms Broadribb writes more in the Lori Anderson series. I enjoyed my week in lockdown with Lori and I can’t wait to read more thrillers in her world. Book 4 ends on a teasing note that makes me hope there are more stories to tell. Thank you so much Ms Broadribb for a doozy of a ride. Lori and her world are brilliant. You write ‘em, I’ll buy em, I promise.

First book in a series but this does work well as a standalone.Lori is a bounty hunter and I really liked the premise of this but her character didn't work for me,  i just couldn't get into her head space or understand her thought process. Something was off about her and because she's the main character and everything is from her perspective i just felt weird and uncomfortable in her shoes and not in a good way.I also felt like in the rush to pull all the threads together at the conclusion some threads got totally forgotten and they are not something that could be addressed in later books. The kids explosive jacket is something that is going to bug me everytime I think about this book.This was just OK, i didn't love it nor hate it. The pacing was a bit off in the middle and because of the lag my mind drifted and it was a struggle to hold my attention.I'll won't be finishing the series, things wrapped up ok for me at the end and I don't like the characters enough to care what happens to them next.Two stars.

Finally got round to reading Steph Broadribb’s series focusing on bounty hunter, Lori Anderson.Set in Florida and the Southern states of America, Deep Down Dead, is a classic action thriller that moves from one set piece to another. Each location is a tense stand-off, a chase, a hostage situation, a shoot-out or ‘how do we get out of this one?’. This constant change of location and scenario maintains the tension and propels the action along.The basic premise is that Lori needs this job; while it seems a little dodgy, she convinced herself that she can take her nine year old daughter along.However, everything that can go wrong will, her bail dodger JT seems to have more people than her out to get him. He isn’t being completely honest and seems to have changed from the guy who introduced her into bounty hunting some ten years previously.It is a none stop, action packed chase thriller where the hunter becomes the hunted and her daughter is placed at serious risk. It is a believable scenario but as a single parent, one wonders why, albeit a lucrative profession why Lori needs to risk her life in her job. Her daughter Dakota is battling leukaemia so money will always be tight, but childcare is a problem that needs sorting. Taking her along adds real drama to this story and the reasons make sense but going forward this aspect of Lori’s life needs resolving. As does the great risk that accompanies her in bringing murderers back to face justice. Not saying she isn’t skilled and a highly professional operative but what would happen to Dakota if she was injured, couldn’t work or worse.I was with interest to see how the author resolves this contrast between a work life balance as the relationship between mum and daughter seems a special one. In addition this strong female lead in this series is refreshing compared to the Bonds, Reachers and Bournes in this world.Can’t wait to read on as I came to this series late.