The Crushing

Olivia Callahan Suspense, #4

by

Kerry Peresta

Suspenseful tale of revenge and love gone wrong!

The Crushing is the fourth book in author Kerry Peresta’s compelling Olivia Callahan Suspense series and proves to be a suspense-filled tale of revenge and regretted former lovers. With an engaging main character, a supportive group of women friends all suffering the consequences of ill-chosen former husbands, and an intense storyline, I didn’t want to put this book down. 

The main character and the owner of her own private investigations firm, Olivia Callahan is still recuperating from an assault that left her with a traumatic brain injury years earlier but is forging ahead with her new career and patchy memories of her former life. However, she and the rest of her close-knit Wine, Whine, and Win women’s group become worried when one of their friends, Hannah, seems to drop off the face of the Earth soon after she marries and moves to a small town in Florida. Finally, they decide to have Sherry, with her newly granted PI’s license, check on her in person, and what she discovers is chilling. The exciting prologue foretells the extreme circumstances Sherry encounters in her rescue of Hannah from her abusive spouse. The psychological and physical abuse she had undergone in the previous two years was unimaginable, and Patrick’s relentless pursuit of his fleeing wife kept me on the edge of my seat, waiting for him to pop up again.

In the meantime, a new client with ties to both Olivia’s incarcerated ex-husband and Callie’s former spouse shows up looking to hire her firm for some surveillance work on his wife, who he suspects is having an affair. It, too, turns out to be much more complex. 

Hunter Faraday, now a sergeant with Richmond Police Department, returns, still hurting from Olivia’s rejection a year earlier and his more recent breakup with Detective Shiloh McPherson. He’s remained in contact with Olivia’s family but steers clear of contacting her until she reaches out for information he can obtain on her current case. To complicate his life and emotions, Shiloh also re-enters his life, needing his department’s cooperation on a case to Richmond that she’s been working undercover for several months. Naturally, he’s highly conflicted over his feelings for both women. 

Even though this is the fourth book in the series, new readers should be able to quickly pick up enough backstory to read and enjoy this story as a standalone. With twists around every corner, the suspenseful involvement of the ex-husbands, and its emotion-fraught relationships, I recommend THE CRUSHING to readers of suspense. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours.