This is a review of the four volume (so far) Sydney Rose Parnell Mystery Series by Barbara Nickless, including Blood on the Tracks (#1), Dead Stop (#2), Ambush (#3) and Gone to Darkness (#4). I read these because I enjoyed the first two of Nickless’s Evan Wilding series immensely. I tried to read Parnell series in order, but inadvertently read #3 before #2 with no ill effects and was easily able to follow the story. I found Sydney Parnell to be a tough-as-nails heroine. A Marine veteran of the Iraqi war, she is now discharged and has started to work with a Denver train company as a policewoman along with her dog, Clyde, also retired military—a K9. Sydney is dealing with PTSD and other emotional problems. Through the course of these books, she and Clyde move on to Major Crimes Unit in the Denver police department. Time and again, she encounters serial killers, mass murderers, and bizarre crimes which she—with the help of Clyde and Sidney’s new lover, Cohen, another cop—handily solve after much personal danger.
These are police procedurals written with phenomenal attention to detail and unexpected twists and turns while allowing plenty of space for character development and evolution. I enjoyed the Evan Wilding series partially because he deals with semiotics which fascinate me. It was great fun to have him feature in the fourth book, Gone to Darkness, as Cohen’s cousin. Definitely good, intellectually stimulating reading.
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Sydney Rose Parnell Mystery Series can be obtained through Amazon.
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You can read my reviews of Barbara Nickless’s Evan Wilding series At First Light here and Dark of Night here. I am eagerly awaiting the third in the series, Play of Shadows, due out November 14, 2023.
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