Book Reviews

Book Blurb

PI Jackson Rivers and Henry Worrall have gotten used to throwing themselves into danger as a team, so when Henry is hurt badly one night defending a friend and her teenage ward, it’s all hands on deck for Jackson, his fiancé Ellery Cramer, their firm, and their friends. Henry is battling for his life. The least they can do is hunt down Henry’s shooter and keep the intended victims safe.

Knowing Jackson will dedicate himself to tracking down a very dangerous assailant with no regard to his own safety, Ellery makes one stipulation: Jackson needs a temporary partner. Jackson finds a good one in someone from the firm’s past, but while Jackson’s figuring out a new rhythm on zero sleep and a lot of desperation, Ellery and their friends are putting together a puzzle with a lot more pieces than Henry’s random shooting. Somebody in their city is preying on teenagers in a most insidious way, and nobody in their circle is going to let this stand.

Jackson has spent a year and a half trying to heal from physical and emotional wounds, and this case is going to make him look at every choice he’s made to survive. Ellery—and Ellery’s  mother—will do anything to help him, but does Jackson finally have emotional defenses to fight his own demons while he’s slaying dragons for the family he’s found, or will he drown in his own remorse? Sometimes, when you’re a kid on the streets, living past tomorrow means choosing between the Devil and the Deep Blue Fish.  

 

Book Review

It’s good to be back with the gang! Along with the normal snark, humor, action-adventure, surprising vulnerabilities, and crazy hijinks, there are always new bad guys to despise. In a time when it often feels as if there’s no hope left in the world this author gives us the people to believe in, and the ones who take down the evil surrounding us. Be warned though, this review is going to mention people’s names from both the ‘Johnnies’ and the ‘Fish Out of Water’ series and I’m going to assume you know who I’m talking about.

 

In ‘Devil and the Deep Blue Fish’ the guys are dealing with Moms for Clean Living, aka the Stepford Dragons. I don’t even need to really explain what this group’s cause is, do I? Needless to say, Cowboy is a fourteen-year-old boy who escaped from the Dragons compound and mercifully ran into John and Galen. Unfortunately, while Henry is at Mrs. Bobby’s Mom’s apartment to watch over the kid until they can get the full story, he’s attacked by members of the Dragons and, oh crap, Henry is shot. The less I say about Jackson’s state of mind discovering this the better. Hence the vulnerabilities I mentioned above.

 

The Moms for Clean Living are the white, middle-aged, “Christian” women who want to ban the books that reference anything other than white, straight religious (their religion anyway) beliefs. They take money from PACs and support the most conservative politicians around. Well, they should have stayed out of Sacramento because they aren’t prepared to deal with Jackson, Ellery, Lucy Satan, Jade, AJ, Crystal, and Cody. Their first mistake was starting a chapter in Sacramento. Their second mistake was taking kids from homes and telling the parents they were going to “fix” their LGBTQIA child. Their third mistake was abusing these children and then shooting Henry. These “Moms” aren’t prepared to deal with what’s coming for them.

 

“It was incomprehensible to him. These women had, so far, been born poor, worked hard for an education with their MRS on the side, and then had set about making the same support systems that had given them food, clothing, and education when they’d been children absolutely unavailable to anybody else.” ~ Ellery

 

Throughout this series, each book in fact, has Cramer, Rivers, and Henderson dealing with something heartbreaking. But, when it’s kids… abandoned by their families, betrayed by adults, violated, and abused in horrific ways, it becomes a devastating pain that doesn’t disappear easily. Seeing how these amazing people fight the good fight day in and day out really is a balm for the soul, especially these days when it seems as if everyone is wearing a red hat and crapping all over our beliefs in right and wrong.

 

“I said I was so looking forward to marrying you. God, Ellery, we see some of the worst shit. But we have so many good people in our lives. It makes dealing with the worst shit possible, you know?” ~ Jackson

 

I’m not going to go into details about the how, the why, the when, and the who, just accept my word that it’s an incredible tale filled with all the things I’ve come to love about these books. This one, in particular, has a little extra oomph with my favorite broken character, Jackson. It involves a nightmare, Ellery, Lucy Satan, Billy-Bob, and Lucifer in a baring of the soul middle of the night conversation that brought tears to my eyes. In fact, I needed tissue more than once during this read which, to be honest, was reassuring for me because I’d started to worry that being numb all the time to what’s going on in my country had eliminated my ability to empathize. I’m glad to see it’s not gone. Not yet.

 

Thank you to the author for bringing these people to life again. Sometimes it’s the only hope I feel there is, even if it’s fictional.

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been purchased by the reviewer.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 356 pages/135652 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	03-June-2025
Price	$6.99 ebook, $20.99 paperback
Buy Link	https://dreamspinnerpress.com/books/devil-and-the-deep-blue-fish-by-amy-lane-12591-b