I borrowed this audiobook from the library.
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: July 18, 2023
Summary:
In the tradition of Craig Johnson and C. J. Box, Bruce Borgos’s The Bitter Past begins a compelling series set in the high desert of Nevada featuring Sheriff Porter Beck…
Porter Beck is the sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, north of Las Vegas. Born and raised there, he left to join the Army, where he worked in Intelligence, deep in the shadows in far off places. Now he’s back home, doing the same lawman’s job his father once did, before his father started to develop dementia. All is relatively quiet in this corner of the world, until an old, retired FBI agent is found killed. He was brutally tortured before he was killed and clues at the scene point to a mystery dating back to the early days of the nuclear age. If that wasn’t strange enough, a current FBI agent shows up to help Beck’s investigation.
In a case that unfolds in the past (the 1950s) and the present, it seems that a Russian spy infiltrated the nuclear testing site and now someone is looking for that long-ago, all-but forgotten person, who holds the key to what happened then and to the deadly goings on now.
My thoughts:
I picked this one up after seeing rave reviews for it from some of my trusted bookstagram friends and knowing that it was the start of a series. You all know how I love my series…and I have to say, while I am a bit late to the game, I’m so glad I took a chance on this one! I really liked it and am so excited to get to the second book!
This book completely took me by surprise and I loved how captivated I was right from the start. I have really come to love historical mysteries and this one is the perfect blend of mystery, police procedural and even a little espionage. Told using a dual timeline, I found myself equally drawn to both timelines. I haven’t read too many books that deal with the nuclear testing in Nevada and I found that really interesting, but I also loved the FBI investigation in the present day. All the twists and turns kept me on my toes and I had no idea where this one was heading!
The action starts right off the bat and doesn’t stop. I wasn’t sure how the two timelines were connected, but once the connection was made, I was SHOOK! I definitely did not see that coming…and am so curious to see how that will affect our characters moving forward. Again…this is why I love reading series – that continued character development is so fun to watch!
I can’t wait to catch up with Porter Beck in the next installment – Shades of Mercy is out next week and I’ll be getting to it very soon!
Audio thoughts:
This was such a great book to listen to and the narrator, James Babson, did such a great job bringing this story to life. I really hope he continues to narrate the rest of the books in this series because I am such a fan of consistency with narrators and series and if he does, I will for sure be listening to the next book!
Books in this series:
- The Bitter Past
- Shades of Mercy – out July 16th
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