Secondary Target
The Secrets of Kincaid Book 1
Angela Carlisle
Bethany House Pub
May 2024
Secondary Target by Angela Carlisle has suspense, a mystery, and some romance with a second chance love story. The mystery will keep readers on their toes with a ruthless murderer who is stalking the Roberts family.
“This is my first book I have written. I wrote the book before I became an editor about eight years ago. I have made revisions, some of the edits I have done on my own. We also did it as a team. The series will have three books. This book came about when I had a conversation with my brother who was in high school that became a dream of mine. The characters’ backstory came out of the discussion.”
Throughout the book there are several people seriously injured or killed by this person who seems to have a vengeance against the Roberts family. Corina Roberts life was upended when her mother and brother were brutally murdered when she was thirteen. Her father, Will, in attempting to protect her and shield her, decided to vanish and moved to Kentucky. She was able to follow her dreams and opened a country western store.
“Will is off page for quite a bit of the book. He is the father of the main female character, Corina. Will was a private detective when she was growing up. After the mother and brother of Corina was wiped out the family moved. These pieces of his past come to affect them later. Will is stubborn, paranoid, protective, fearful, and frustrated.”
At the start of the story, she is staying at her overprotective, somewhat paranoid dad’s place where there is lots of security. Yet even with all these precautions weird, suspenseful, dangerous events start to take place. After her father disappears, Corina is determined to find out the secrets he has been hiding from her. With the help of her former boyfriend, Bryce Jessup and his sister, Allye who also happens to be her best friend, they discover a very well-hidden box full of lethal secrets her once private investigator father had hidden.
“Corina is stubborn, brave, spunky, someone with triggers, and a fighter. She feels guilty about what happened to the brother of her boyfriend and blames herself. While Bryce is compassionate, trustworthy, and protective. The dog Houston is protective, loyal, and mischievous. She has had him several years. While she has pushed away human relationships the bond with her canine companion has been very strong.”
It becomes obvious that someone is intent on killing her, but first attempts to terrify her. This villain was evil and quite talented at getting past the defenses. Bryce knows that he cannot ignore the dangers and feels the need to protect her. Bryce has every intention of staying away from Corina, but when threats close in around her, he isn’t willing to leave her safety to chance. When the book starts there is not much information about her and Bryce’s previous relationship, but it is obvious they used to be close, yet now are avoiding each other. However, these events have brought them back working together to find the stalker, not that Corina is happy about that.
“The relationship starts out hostile. She will not admit her feelings. They had been very close at one time and after that split she closed off to him, afraid of getting hurt.”
As the story progresses readers learn more about their past, both the tragedy that took Corina’s mother and brother from her, the past relationship between Corina and Bryce, and what drove them apart. As they work together to find the killer, they realize that they still have feelings for each other and begin to reconnect, first as a friendship, and then something more.
“The killer wants the family terrified, stalks them, and is manipulative. He gives notes, uses hangup phone calls to create fear. He likes to play with his victims before killing them. I placed the setting in rural Kentucky because I live here, and it is very fitting for the story.”
There were many twists to this mystery. Readers will be fully invested in trying to find out who the killer is and how will he be captured.
