Title: Stalked by Revenge: Zane Clearwater Mysteries
Author: Lynn Lipinski
Publisher: Majestic Content Los Angeles
ISBN: 979-8-9866288-2-0
Pages: 272
Genre: Thriller / Suspense
Reviewed by: Anita Lock
Pacific Book Review
The prisoner’s release is the first in a whirlwind of events threatening the lives of a set of siblings and their loved ones in Stalked by Revenge.
Zane Clearwater, sixteen-year-old step-sister Lettie Magdite—his very pregnant sister, and Lettie’s boyfriend Angel live with Verdana Davis, the siblings’ grandmother, in Verdana’s trailer home outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Zane, six months into police training, learns that one of two half-brothers, Clyde Doom, might be released from prison. Clyde and his biological brother Link were responsible for Zane’s mother’s death and Lettie’s kidnapping—their retaliatory measure when Zane murdered their equally notorious father.
Around the same time that Zane receives news about Clyde, Lettie receives a baby rattle attached to an anonymous letter with her name on it. A few days later, Zane gets suspended since someone claimed he sold meth, which was a lie. Zane reaches out to Cal Himmelman, one of his class instructors, and the two decide to meet. Himmelman brings along veteran cop Loris Trapper, who tells him that the first thing he needs to do is fortify his home, especially when she hears about Angel receiving an eerie social media message. Fortunately, Lettie’s cyber-sleuth skills identify the perpetrator as Clyde’s fiancée. The day of the arraignment goes as Zane and Lettie hope, with Clyde’s non-release from prison. Their relief is short-lived as their worst fears come to fruition when they learn of Clyde’s escape.
Author Lynn Lipinski continues to “keep it real” in Stalked by Revenge, the third installment in her Zane Clearwater Mysteries series. Her main characters, Zane and Lettie, might be a year older and exhibit seriousness in their desires to better themselves, but nightmares from their tainted pasts torment them. Lipinski’s credit is found in her dedication to character development, providing her readers with well-rounded, multi-faceted individuals that display genuine people in realistic situations.
Lipinski’s knack for minutiae goes beyond her cast as she captures various elements particular to Tulsa to keep her narrative crisp and flowy. Oklahoma’s court system’s attention to the McGirt case (criminal jurisdiction over crimes involving Native Americans) and cyber-sleuthing are two examples. Her creation of human-interest storytelling is at the top of her writing style as she alternates character scenes, providing glimpses into each character’s thinking, within cliff-hanging chapters. While her protagonists find themselves regularly in the throes of problems with many twists and turns, fear and how they face it remain at the forefront. Those who are victims of familial trauma can easily relate to much of what Zane and Lettie experience. In the meantime, the rest of us can’t even begin to fathom those heinous ordeals as we anxiously root for the underdogs to rise above and win over evil.
Stalked by Revenge will keep thriller and suspense aficionados engaged from beginning to end.
