About the book:
Title/Author: Those Who Walk In Darkness / Joyce and Jim Lavene
Genre: Historical Mystery / Thriller
Publisher: Createspace
Date of publish: March 2016
Pages: 364
Book Links: Amazon Those Who Walk In Darkness (Jacks Jackson Mystery) (Volume 1)/ Goodreads / Riffle / IndieBound

About The Book:

Three years ago, Julia Jackson was a well to do young woman from Boston whose fiancé, Jonathon, was killed right before her eyes. Obsessed with finding the killer, a man whose face she saw only in a flash as he walked up and shot Jonathon, she leaves her family and her life behind. She starts a new life as ‘Jacks’ Jackson—a cigar smoking, dead eye, female Pinkerton agent…pretending to be a man.

Now Allan Pinkerton needs Jacks to find the man who kidnapped the wife and son of a railroad official, David Boyd. Their only clues are the severed finger from the man’s wife, complete with wedding ring, and a map of the Qualla boundary, the Cherokee reservation in North Carolina.

Jacks doesn’t like the way the whole thing sounds from the beginning. David Boyd isn’t important enough to target for a kidnapping. And why travel so far with two hostages?

But Pinkerton tells her that he believes the man responsible for the kidnapping worked with Jonathon’s murderer in a train robbery five years ago. Jacks agrees to go after the kidnapper with hopes of catching him before he can reach his home grounds.

Pinkerton insists that Jacks bring three men with her—Boyd, her new partner, and a Cherokee guide named Running Wolf, who’s always watching her, like he’s trying to figure it out.

Can Jacks catch the kidnapper with her secret—and her life—intact?

What Others Are Saying:

Team Lavene has the Midas touch for fiction!
~Back Porchervations

A great cast of characters and a gripping story line. You will be hooked from the start.
~Shelley’s Book Case

Another great new series from my favorite, most prolific mystery writers…The book is fast-paced and full of surprises.
~Book Babble

The story jumped right into action and kept my interest to the end. I enjoyed the characters, the mystery and the good movement of the story. The writing flows well and is an easy read.
~Reviews by Martha’s Bookshelf

My Review:

Also see Lian Asks: 5 Questions with Jim Lavene

It has been a while since I have read a good old fashioned western. Though this is foremost a mystery, it is a great old fashioned western. Julia “Jacks” Jackson is on the hunt for her fiance`s killer. She is masquerading as a man as she works for the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency, slowly working her way through the clues to find him. Her current assignment is to track a Native American to the Cherokee reservation to retrieve the kidnapped family of a railroad executive. She and her fellow agent, Davey Hume, must protect the man, David Boyd, and his gold until he can negotiate the release of his family. They are led into the reservation by a Cherokee healer, Running Wolf.

It would seem that both Boyd and Running Wolf know more about the kidnapping than they have told and Jacks isn’t sure that she trusts either of them. Furthermore they are being tracked and dead bodies and Mrs. Boyd’s body parts keep showing up. This is personal and Jacks must get to the bottom of the mystery before she and her team end up dead.

It is funny how natural the supernatural feels when you add it in to a Native American story. There is definitely more than meets the eye here. The byplay between Jacks and Running Wolf is terrifically written and it will be interesting to see where it comes out. All the characters are ‘real’, but Davey’s naivete is the perfect foil for Jacks’ prickliness. Also Running Deer’s commentary adds wonderful insight into her Jacks’ character.

This book just ends and that was disappointing. The absolute worst thing about e-books is not being able to see how many pages are left so you know that there is no way it can finish the story. I am looking forward to seeing how this adventure plays out.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

About The Authors:

Joyce and Jim Lavene write award-winning, bestselling mystery fiction as themselves, J.J. Cook, and Ellie Grant. They have written and published more than 70 novels for Harlequin, Berkley, Amazon, and Gallery Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. They live in rural North Carolina with their family.