Redneck’s Revenge by Joan Livingston

Val Penny ♦ November 8, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

I read and enjoyed Joan Livingston’s debut novel, Chasing the Case, at the end of last year. That book is reviewed here: https://bookreviewstoday.info/2018/05/30/chasing-the-case-by-joan-livingston/. So, when I noticed that there was a sequel to that, I was keen to read that too and I was not disappointed.

Although Chasing the Case and Redneck’s Revenge are the first two books in the Isabel Long series, it is not necessary to have read the first book to enjoy the second.

Redneck’s Revenge sees Isabel come to an agreement with an established Private Investigator so that she can become a fully licensed PI in her own right. She negotiates an amusingly modest retainer only to accept an most unusual fee from a client who is sure that her father’s death was not the accident it was deemed to be.

Isabel then finds herself in the centre of a love triangle, terrorised by local drug dealers and witnessing domestic violence. It is a real cracker of a story told with restaint and charm that are the trademarks of the books by this witty author. You also cannot help but love the relationship Isabel has with her side-kick and confidante – her 92 year-old mother!

Redneck’s Revenge would be an excellent book for a book group and I highly recommend it as a very good read.

The Author

Joan Livingston is the author of novels for adult and young readers. Chasing the Case, published by Crooked Cat Books, is her first mystery and the first in a series featuring Isabel Long, a longtime journalist who becomes an amateur P.I. The next is Redneck’s Revenge.

An award-winning journalist, she started as a reporter covering the hilltowns of Western Massachusetts. She was an editor, columnist, and most recently the managing editor of The Taos News, which won numerous state and national awards during her tenure.

After eleven years in Northern New Mexico, she returned to rural Western Massachusetts, which is the setting of much of her adult fiction, including the Isabel Long Mystery Series.

Val Penny