Hooked by Caitlin Rother
Caitlin Rother brings verisimilitude from her previous career to her carefully crafted latest novel Hooked, a fast-paced crime thriller pairing for the first time investigative reporter Katrina Chopin with Ken Goode, a surfing homicide detective. This is the first in a planned series featuring the charismatic, well-matched pair of investigators with the second slated to be published in early summer.
Paradise Shattered by a Double Murder
The novel is set in the small, exclusive enclave La Jolla Farms with multi-million dollar luxury homes, stunning ocean views on the cliffs above the popular but hard to reach surfer’s favorite Black’s Beach. The quiet harmony is shattered when Simon Fontaine, a physician and biotech executive is found dead with his daughter Victoria Fontaine in the home they share. Initially considered suicides, the evidence seems to indicate they were murdered with the real killer attempting to falsify drug overdoses.
Southern California native Katrina Goode has returned after spending five years on the east coast followed by another five in Chicago where she worked as a journalist on a major paper for the smaller San Diego-Sun Dispatch. She is determined to make her mark on home turf as an investigative reporter with the unspoken ulterior motive of solving the twin murders of her parents and the mysterious death of twin brother Franny.
Along with his athletic surfer’s body, Ken Goode possesses a keen, analytical mind. When Hooked begins, he has arrived from the airport after ten vacation days of riding the waves in Maui and visiting with his Aunt Katherine who raised him and younger sister Maureen after their mother committed suicide. He was six years old, seated in the back seat of the family car when mom suddenly pulled over, got out, climbed over the railings of the Coronado Bridge and jumped.
Secrets, Power and a Deadly New Drug
Ken stopped for a drink and dinner at favorite restaurant Piatti’s where he sat in the only open seat at the bar next to beautiful Katrina Chopin as she sipped a drink. Their immediate mutual attraction smolders tantalizingly throughout this thriller. Goode was summoned to work on the Fontaine murders. Sharing dinner was on hold along with any potential thoughts of getting together in order to avoid compromising the murder investigation with a potential conflict of interest. As the case progressed, aggressive investigator Katrina shared some of her discoveries while occasionally Ken discreetly spoke off the record. He kept a closer watch on her as she began to make connections pointing to the killer or killers and it became clear her life was in danger…