I’ve read some great things about Allison Brennan’s Quinn and Costa Thrillers and was keen to read the second novel in the series, Tell No Lies – a book about family secrets, desperation, and greed. The book almost reads like a story ripped from the headlines given the Biden administration’s new, open border policy that has created an unprecedented surge of migrants flowing across the southern border – circumstances that are further enriching the Mexican drug cartels who control the Mexican side of the border and also engage in the human trafficking of impoverished women and children.

While I haven’t read the first book in the series, Brennan provides plenty of background on the key characters to help the reader get acquainted, which makes Tell No Lies more than a capable standalone novel. In a manner reminiscent of the way Michael Connelly’s makes Harry Bosch and Renée Ballard co-protagonists in his latest Harry Bosch novels, Brennan does the same here putting us alternately into the heads of LAPD detective Kara Quinn and FBI special agent Matt Costa so that we benefit from both character’s perspectives as the story unfolds.

Quinn, temporarily assigned to an FBI task force headed by Costa, is working in an undercover role in a small town in southeastern Arizona as part of an FBI investigation into the murder of a college intern and environmental activist. The team believes someone killed the young woman because she was searching for evidence to link a local copper refinery with illegal dumping of toxic materials that was leaching into the water supplies and killing wildlife. But as the investigation goes forward, the FBI team uncovers clues that show something much darker is going on and the investigation grows increasingly complex.

Brennan does a fabulous job holding the reader’s attention with a tight, well-thought plot, a host of interesting, realistic characters, and the rapid-fire pacing and breathtaking action thriller fans expect.

Tell No Lies by Allison Brennan, is a sizzling thriller guaranteed to please readers who enjoy a complex crime tale with plenty of action that keeps the pages turning.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for the purposes of this review.