Never Broken (Lisa Jamison #2) by Lori Duffy Foster Book Review!

 

The near corpse of a stranger had no idea where he’d been, how long he’d been there or who had kept him captive. But one thing intrigued journalist Lisa Jamison even more than his story: recent memories of a woman named Chandra Bower.
Seven years had passed since Chandra disappeared from Seneca Springs without a trace. Police investigators still compared DNA records whenever an unidentified body appeared, hoping to at least bring her family closure. Lisa still chased down leads from desperate family and friends, being careful to hide her investigations from an editor who thought she’d become obsessed with a woman who was clearly dead.

But this man had just seen her, sewing designer clothes in a dark, filthy basement with about twenty other men and women under horrifically inhumane conditions. And the sweatshop workers all had one thing in common: All were people of color.
A split-second decision to help the man takes Lisa on a race against time. His captors want him back, there is evidence someone on the police force might be involved and the man knows that if he were recaptured, they would torture him until he revealed the names of the two people who helped him escape: Lisa Jamison and Chandra Bower.

Lisa promised her teenage daughter she would stay away from the dangerous stories ever since her job had nearly gotten them both killed two years before. But she no longer has a choice. She must keep the stranger hidden while she gathers enough evidence to turn the case over to the city police or the FBI. At least three lives—her own, the stranger’s, and Chandra’s—depend on it. 

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Lori Duffy Foster is a former crime reporter who writes and lives in the hills of Northern Pennsylvania. She is the author of A Dead Man’s Eyes, which is the first in the Lisa Jamison Mysteries Series, an Agatha Award nominee, and a finalist for the Shamus Award. Never Broken is book 2 in the series. Look for her debut thriller, Never Let Go, in December of 2022. Her short fiction has appeared in the journal Aethlon, and in the anthologies Short Story America and Childhood Regained. Her nonfiction has appeared in Healthy Living, Running Times, Literary Mama, Crimespree, and Mountain Home magazines. Lori is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, The Historical Novel Society, International Thriller Writers, and Pennwriters. She also sits on the board of the Knoxville (PA) Public Library.

https://loriduffyfoster.com/

My Thoughts

Never Broken by Lori Duffy Foster is the second in the series but can definitely be read as a stand-alone novel.

Lisa Jamison, a journalist is just getting to her car, and inside she finds an emaciated man, Saul, who had just escaped from a sweatshop. He tells Lisa her story and she is intrigued and wants to help him and learn more and expose the owners of this sweatshop. She takes him to her friend Dorothy's home and enlists an ex-doctor friend to take care of him.

As Lisa digs into Saul's story she remembers the girl that he tells her about, Chandra, who disappeared seven years ago on her way to the store. Never to be seen or heard from, Saul's story is that she is still alive and in the same sweatshop that he escaped from. The only problem to his story is that he does not know where it is, he was too intent on his escape to pay much attention along with his condition did not allow for many memories.

She slowly gets the story from him and is determined to expose this trafficking of people for the needs of men who want only to make money off of these people.

Lisa enlists the help of her boss and a fellow journalist. Their search leads them to danger that they may not escape. Lisa is running against the clock to solve this mystery. Will she be able to solve it in time and still be safe?

I read the first book in the series, A Dead Man's Eyes, and really enjoyed it, so I felt that this book would be as good, and I was right. I loved Lisa and Dorothy's characters. Lisa has a daughter Bridget, she is not as much of the main character as she was in the first book but she definitely contributes to the story. 

If you like a good mystery, then this series is for you!

I give it 5 stars!

I received a copy for review purposes only!