Reckoning and Ruin

February 22, 2016
Tai Randolph has to deal with one peril after another in Whittle’s twisty fifth novel featuring the Atlanta gun shop owner (after 2014’s Deeper than the Grave). If it isn’t the possibility that boyfriend Trey Seaver, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident the previous year, will do something crazy, it’s the intentions of an anonymous stalker, who sends Tai cryptic messages. Meanwhile, Tai must tackle the complex problem of her ex-boyfriend’s sudden disappearance and its connection to the unsavory Savannah, Ga., side of her family—in particular, her cousin Jasper Boone, the leader of a Ku Klux Klan splinter group. Jasper, who’s “awaiting trial on charges from criminal trespass to felony assault to conspiracy to commit murder,” has a new lawyer and a scheme that could create big financial trouble for Tai and Trey. Readers should be prepared for a shocker of an ending.

February 1, 2016
Headstrong and determined, a woman trying to leave her past behind is forced back to her Savannah home to confront her biggest adversaries: her family. Glad to escape her past, Tai Randolph is hoping life will calm down now that she's settled in Atlanta and focused on managing a niche gun shop. She and boyfriend Trey are celebrating a year together--a big commitment for either to make given their fiercely independent personalities. Both dread the upcoming trial of Tai's no-good cousin, Jasper, and their apprehension increases when Trey is called into the office by Marisa, his boss at a private security firm. Upset by a meeting she sees on Trey's calendar with Jasper's new attorney's investigator, she gets even more upset when she hears Tai and Trey's bad news: apparently, Jasper has found a way to sue both of them for millions while awaiting his own trial. Angry, Tai tries to learn more about Ainsworth Lovett, Jasper's lawyer. What kind of scruples does Ainsworth have if he's willing to defend a man who makes KKK members look like moderates? In spite of wanting to defend herself, Tai has a much bigger problem when her ex's current love, Hope, turns up in the gun store shockingly seeking Tai's help. Because Hope's testifying against Jasper, Tai feels that she must help her even though it means a return to her relatives and her Savannah past. All her digging doesn't uncover the secret her Uncle Boone has been hiding, which supplies a final twist that sets up the next in the series . Readers new to Tai's adventures (Deeper than the Grave, 2014, etc.) may be put off by all the back story. Those enamored of her will enjoy the way it drives the plot, which is most likely to appeal to those with a strong investment in the heroine.

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March 1, 2016
In Atlanta, gun-shop owner Tai Randolph seems to be the target of her white-supremacist cousin Jasper's anger. It's not really surprising: Tai's boyfriend, a former SWAT officer, was instrumental in putting Jasper in jail. But Jasper has a plan to get himself out as soon as possible, and it seems to involve hurting a lot of people, including, perhaps, Tai's boyfriend or even Tai herself. The fifth installment in the Randolph series takes Tai back to her hometown of Savannah, where she's forced to confront her own dark past and the family she worked so hard to leave behind. The focus is on character here: Tai, her troubled boyfriend, her disreputable family. The story is smartly constructed, but it's the peopleportrayed with subtlety and depthwho keep us glued to the page. Fans of the series will enjoy this one very much.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)