Injoy's Blogs + Book Reviews

I received a free kindle copy of Snake Skin by C.J. Lyons in an Amazon promotion in exchange for a fair review.This started off with a sharp hook. I gave it five stars.

It is an intense, suspense-filled thriller that kept me turning pages.

Ashley describes her reasons for cutting & her trophies, won with success. "She carefully rolled her sleeve back, exposing the other trophies her control had won. Each scar a triumph. Each scar a time she hadn't run screaming out into the night or throw herself in front of a bus or jumped off a bridge. Each scar reminding her that she could win that she mattered, that somewhere inside this cold numb husk, she was alive.

"Supervisory Special Agent Lucy Guardino is a strong, positive woman working for the S.A.F.E. section of the FBI. That is the Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement squad. She's been with the job for three months. She had been undercover & barely had time to change clothes to move directly into a kidnapping situation. She's balancing her difficult job with her twelve year old daughter, Megan who is in the: "Mom!" stage. I'm not a baby." Nick her husband, shares parenting duties but Megan needed to go to the doctor with strep throat. Lucy & Nick hadn't seen much of each other for the months it has taken to set up the newest S.A.F.E Unit.

Needed by Lucy in the next case is: "Tact, diplomacy, team building—-she needed these men as much as they needed her. Not to mention a missing fourteen-year-old girl who should be home right now listening to bubble-gum pop rock and painting her toenails. Or whatever Ashley Yeager did to amuse herself in the large, looming house that reminded Lucy of San Quentin."

There are many jurisdictions & massive egos intersected in this case. The question about what is happening brings different responses as to whether it is a kidnapping or runaway girl.

Jimmy is caring for his aging manipulative mother in a nursing home. He wants to know more about his father but she withholds that information. He plays an important role in this story.

"Nick’s voice was calm, reassuring. One of the few things she hated about her husband. She could project calm, take control over chaos no matter the crisis, but dammit, he really was calm. Like some kind of Southern-Irish-Zen Master."

"In Lucy’s experience, shock and fear brought out the worst in people— including the need some people had to center the drama on themselves rather than the true victims.

"Lucy is talking to Melissa, Ashley's mother & discovers that she has an 'old friend'. "Did Ashley know Jon? Melissa gave a shrug & slouched--totally out of character for the perfect-postured fashion model image she'd portrayed earlier. 'No. Ashley didn't like Jon.....If it was true, if Jon Tardiff had a thing for girls, then Melissa was living every mother's worst nightmare. The thing you never thought about--for fear that if you did, even for a second, you might be inviting the monster into your home."

Perhaps he had kidnapped Ashley.

"Guilt settled down on Lucy's shoulders like a worn out shawl. Make that a hand-crocheted, labor of love, fingers bleeding from being pricked & worked to the bone worn out shawl.

"Megan fainted in church & was transferred to the hospital via ambulance. Lucy found out with a voice mail from Nick. She rushed to the hospital. After she'd vomited in the restroom. "Megan's laughter carried from her room two doors down as Lucy emerged from the restroom, still shaky. It was the sweetest sound Lucy had ever heard. She closed her eyes, listening hard, imprinting the sound on her memory. A gift to be unwrapped later.

"Cindy Ames, a television reporter had taken photos of Lucy's family after she'd been warned. To keep her from publishing them, they worked out a deal so she had an 'exclusive' opening into the investigation searching for Ashley. Lucy was not pleased.

"Ames shrugged, her expression conveying contempt for Lucy's idealism. 'Way of the world. If it bleeds, it leads.'"

Highly recommended suspense reading. CJ Lyons is an impressive author!