Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Thriller, Dark
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Maryann
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About The Book
While young doctor Adam Morrow resigns himself to an uninformed existence, world-weary assassin Ian Abbott struggles with a life he never asked for. When the two strangers meet by chance, the attraction is immediate. And deadly, as Adam walks in on Ian in the middle of a hit.
The situation spirals out of control once Ian discovers he and Adam share a connection far more profound than either imagined. Shocked by the discovery, Ian makes the hasty decision to kidnap him.
Overnight Adam is torn from his promising career and a family who believes him dead. Things go from bad to worse when he finds himself reunited with a mother he never knew who is now head of a covert and shadowy group of killers for hire. Forced into joining their ranks, with Ian as his reluctant trainer and handler, Adam is given a series of impossible tasks to complete.
To survive, he must fight with everything he has to keep his life, his sanity, and his very soul from being swept up in a violent and chaotic world even as he battles his unwanted and complicated feelings for Ian.
For his part Ian, a man with dark secrets of his own, has a past he isn’t ready to share with Adam even as the other man worms into his life in more ways than one. The two grow closer and lines blur — between good and evil, friend or foe, enemy or lover. But something, or someone, plots against them, determined to do everything in their power to keep them apart. Even if it means destroying them both.
NOTE: This story contains a brief scene of sexual assault. This is book 1 in a series and ends on a cliffhanger.
The Review
On the brink of turning twenty-six, Adam Morrow has a somewhat normal life. He’s engaged to his girlfriend, but his career as a doctor has been consuming his time. Adam has worked hard to make it as a cardiothoracic surgeon and is interning at one of the most prestigious cardiac centers.
All it takes is just one shift for his personal life to take a turn for the worse. Doing a favor for another doctor, he finds himself attending to a notorious patient. And that becomes one of the biggest mistakes of his life.
Cold blooded, assassin Ian Abbott’s assignments are always aimed for high crime lords, mobsters and criminals. Ian is a dark, confused, complex individual. His past itself is twisted, and his training as an assassin has made him dangerous to everyone.
Adam finds himself kidnapped, and there’s no way out. Besides Ian, he meets several other misfits: Mei, Vince, Regan, Hector and Kalifa.
Adam seems to make friends with some, but can he completely trust any of them?
Even though he makes a connection with Ian, it’s very harmful to his physical and mental being. There’s a very thin line between love and hate,and Adam spirals deep and deeper into this black hole of insanity.
Who is the most dangerous, and who is manipulating whom? Ian Abbott, the most dangerously skilled, assassin? Katherine the iron fist, domineering mother?
This is my first time reading a book by Anne Russo, and it’s a very dark, psychological, gruesome one. The author sets the reader on edge and lures them into thinking everything will smooth out between Adam and Ian, and then you’re hit with another gut-wrenching shocker and heart-stopping moment. “The Dead Don’t Lie” never lets up with its suspense, intrigue, blood boiling insanity, and grit.
As a follower of so many types of mysteries, this is an “edge of your seat” nail bitter. Some readers won’t like the “cliff hanger,” but I couldn’t see this ending any other way. It adds to the book’s delicious insanity. I will be waiting to see what heart stopper Anne Russo will bring next for the “Dead Generations” series!
The Reviewer
Hi, I’m Maryann, I started life in New York, moved to New Hampshire and in 1965 uprooted again to Sacramento, California. Once I retired I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida in 2011 and just moved back to Sacramento in March of 2018. My son, his wife and step-daughter flew out to Florida and we road tripped back so they got to see sights they have never seen. New Orleans and the Grand Canyon were the highlights. Now I am back on the west coast again to stay! From a young age Ialways liked to read.
I remember going to the library and reading the “Doctor Dolittle” books by Hugh Lofting. Much later on became a big fan of the classics, Edgar Alan Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker and as time went by Agatha Christie, Ray Bradbury and Stephen Kingand many other authors.
My first M/M shifter book I read was written by Jan Irving the “Uncommon Cowboys” series from 2012. She was the first author I ever contacted and sent an email to letting her know how much I liked this series. Sometime along the way I read “Zero to the Bone”by Jane Seville, I think just about everyone has read this book!
As it stands right now I’m really into mysteries, grit, gore and “triggers” don’t bother me. But if a blurb piques my interest I will read the book.
My kindle collection eclectic and over three thousand books and my Audible collection is slowly growing. I have both the kindle and audible apps on my ipod, ipads, and MAC. So there is never an excuse not to be listening or reading.
I joined Goodreads around 2012 and started posting reviews. One day a wonderful lady, Lisa Horan of The Novel Approach, sent me an email to see if I wanted to join her review group. Joining her site was such an eye opener. I got introduce to so many new authors that write for the LGBTQ genre. Needless to say, it was heart breaking when it ended.
But I found a really great site, QRI and it’s right here in Sacramento. Last year at QSAC I actually got to meet Scott Coatsworth, Amy Lane and Jeff Adams.
