Deep Down Dead by Steph Broadribb - Book Review

I've had the pleasure of seeing Steph Broadribb speak at a couple of events. My first encounter was at Noirwich last September and more recently at the Partners in Crime event in Derby. She takes her writing seriously and works hard to make her characters credible. Doesn't every writer you might ask? Well, I think Steph has gone the extra mile and wins the prize for her commitment this time and here's why. Her debut novel, Deep Down Dead, is about a female bounty hunter and Steph knows all about this as she actually went to America and trained to be one!

They say write what you know and Steph's first-hand knowledge comes across making Lori Anderson (the main character in the book) completely credible and believeable. The book starts with Lori facing challenging times. She has rent to pay and may incur additional hospital fees for her 9-year-old daughter Dakota. She has no choice other than to take on a bounty hunting job to collect her old mentor JT, who was also her lover - just to add an additional layer of complication to the whole scenario.

From there on in the adventure ride begins. Lori finds she has to take Dakota along on the trip - here's another complication, and as Lori has to deal with lots of bad men, Dakota gets kidnapped.

I won't say too much more for fear of spoiling your own enjoyment, but this moves along at a right old speed of knots and I found myself looking forward to my time with Lori and how she was going to overcome all the obstacles thrown at her. I was onside with her from the very off - not only is she all action, but we still get to see her vulnerabilities. I definitely wanted to see her continue to slay the dragons and those dragons just kept on coming.

I absolutely loved one of the settings for the book - a very sinister theme park in Florida called Winter Wonderland. All glossy and polished on one side and deeply unpleasant behind the scenes. The playing of Christmas tunes, while real nasty stuff was happening just out of sight, appealed to my twisted mind.

If I had to find something to criticise,  I think the 'I'm a really bad mother' stuff was a little too overplayed for me, but others may not feel that way.

This is a book filled with action and at times I found myself trying to skip ahead on the page to see where it would all end. But once you reach a point where you can take a nice breath in and think you can relax a little, the next thing comes barreling towards Lori.

It's a great debut novel and if you enjoy books featuring strong, brave and badass female leads, then you won't be disappointed. There's plenty of action to keep you thoroughly entertained, some proper evil villains and the will they/won't they interplay between Lori and JT.

Had I not seen Steph speak, I'm not sure I would have picked this up to read but I'm really glad I did and I already have book 2 - Deep Down Trouble on my shelf for when I'm ready to go on another adrenalin adventure with Lori.

If you want to find out more about Steph Broadribb, you can find her online here:
https://crimethrillergirl.com/ or on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/steph.broadribb and on Instagram @crimethrillergirl

She also has a new psychological thriller out called My Little Eye, written under the name Stephanie Marland which I'm excited to read too.

Happy reading everyone and thanks for dropping by to read my review. Have you read this? If so what did you think?

Coming next time will be my review for C L Taylor's The Fear.