Title: Yucatan Dead
Author: DV Berkom
Publisher: DV Berkom
ISBN: 9781490963266
Pages: 248, Paperback/Kindle
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Reviewed by: Barbara Bamberger Scott
Book Review
“I want to stop running, to stop being afraid. But more than that, I want his people to pay.” Yucatan Dead is the sixth installment of the Kate Jones series from author DV Berkom. A classic scenario of attack and payback, Yucatan Dead tells the story of a woman tired of being hunted, who stops running and fights back.
“Why the hell am I not a million miles away from here?” Kate Jones has been on the run for eleven years. After testifying against (and stolen money from) her former lover, Mexican drug dealer Roberto Salazar, she has spent the ensuing years shifting from place to place and identity to identity. Settling in a small town in Arizona, she begins to feel her life returning to a semblance of normalcy, when her past suddenly catches up with her. She finds herself staring down the barrel of a gun. Accepting that death is eminent, she is instead kidnapped and taken back to Mexico and Salazar, who plans to put her to work in brothels to pay off her debt. But as a cartel war escalates, she soon finds herself freed by an enemy faction’s attack. Wandering the Yucatan jungle in search of an escape, she is picked up by a rogue paramilitary group dedicated to fighting the drug cartels. She impresses their leader, Quinn, with her knowledge of Salazar’s operation and her bravery in the rescue of one of the group’s captured men. And so she is offered a choice: go back home where she will continue to live on the run and in fear, or join Quinn and his men in capturing her hunter.
The story keeps moving, peppered with Berkom’s well-constructed prose and spiced a dash of dry humor along the way. For example, when finding herself imprisoned in a cartel dungeon yet again, Jones takes mental inventory of her surroundings: “Filthy blanket bunched up on the cold, hard floor. Check. No water, no food, no toilet paper. Check, check, check.” The humor serves as good balance to the fear and anxiety that Jones freely expresses in the face of her predicament, providing a sharp and refreshing contrast to the typical stoic, grim-faced male hero of the thriller genre. Since most normal people would be scared witless facing what Jones has faced, showing her realistic distress helps to humanize Kate Jones. That, and her tough-minded take on the situation as she faces up to her fear and performs heroically despite the odds, makes us root for her all the more.
Though it is part of an already established series, it is not necessary to have read any of the previous books to enjoy Yucatan Dead. Berkom does a masterful job of supplying the backstory on the fly, without getting the reader bogged down in the details. Yucatan Dead is a gripping thriller with a gutsy heroine and a tightly woven plot; it will no doubt please Berkom’s current fans and gather more.
