When a court ruling once again halts the carrying out of the death sentences of hundreds of condemned murderers, a frustrated vigilante organization decides to take matters into its own hands. In a mysterious and grisly act of horror, San Quentin's entire population of condemned prisoners is executed in the dark of night. But how? And who are these vigilantes? Answering those questions falls to retired FBI agent Cliff Knowles, now a successful lawyer. His lover, Special Agent Ellen Kennedy, is intent on completing a geocaching challenge known as the Fizzy Challenge, but inadvertently turns Cliff into suspect number one by going for one cache too many. She has no doubt Cliff is innocent, but he's kept a secret from her. He's kept a secret from everyone – and he knows that her faith in him is misplaced. His only chance of keeping Ellen in his life, perhaps even of staying off death row himself, is to get to the critical evidence before the FBI does.
Well done mystery that ties in an earlier book. I actually started with the second book specifically because of Geocaching, but then realized it was a series and went to the first book before continuing on with the rest. As a transplant 3,000 miles from my home state of California I love that I have been to some of the places in the book so I know just which road or city is being mentioned and questioned the mistake of one of the characters even before it was pointed out as such. Looking forward to reading the next in the series.
It's been quite a while since I've sat down an read a book this quickly. In part that's because I've been choosing more challenging reading and in part that's because I've been choosing books of epic proportions. This was an entertaining read that continues the story of Cliff Knowles in his life after leaving the FBI. I was less familiar with the locations than some of the other books, but I am a geocacher an have a fond spot for the hobby appearing as a plot device.
This was another great book by author Russell Atkinson. I am enjoying his Cliff Knowles books. I was pretty sure there was no way that Cliff could make headway thru the mire he seemed to be in. You will need to read it to see if justice prevailed. It was a good read well worth recommending.
Before reading this book you need to read the previous books first. Otherwise there will be spoilers. This book covers a number of topics. Mass murder at a penitentiary. A love life for cliff but does it last? A sharpshooter murdering people. Using an aerial drone. Last but not least geocaching.
I heard about the book series from podcacher.com, a geocaching podcast and first read "Cached Out" on the Kindle. I liked that one the best but the others were good, too. "Fatal Dose", "Held for Ransom", and now "Death Row", all about solving problems to arrive at the destination, much like a geocache puzzle. In Death Row, I first thought the premise was a bit of a stretch, but soon realized there are enough crazy people, political or not, professional or not, male and female, etc. who could pull off a crime like this. I also paused to consider how someone could be assumed to be guilty with overwhelming evidence otherwise. Then I was reminded of how often this happens in other circumstances. Also, the view into the FBI was quite interesting although I was surprised by Cliff's balancing between law as seen by the FBI and law as seen by the the lawyer. The fizzy challenge aspect was appreciated but I am so far from that myself. I solved the puzzle in the book as well. TFTB (Thanks For The Book).
I was disappointed in this book. I thought it would be more about the death row killings than geocaches. The book we back to the first book in this series and just about told the entire story. I understand that this makes it a stand alone book but if I had read the first book I'd b upset. For this reason, I felt the book went on forever. I'm not saying it's a bad book just not my cup of tea.
Death Row by Russell Atkinson ties up one of the loose ends from Mr. Atkinson's second book, Cached Out. I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Cached Out. I also recommend Death Row to anyone who likes mysteries. Although it is not necessary, I recommend reading the Cliff Knowles novels in order so you get to know the characters as they grow and evolve.
As a geocacher myself, I always enjoy that aspect of Atkinson's books, but his books are a good read even without the geocaching in them. This book was fun and I look forward to his next one.