Make Them Sorry by Sam Hawken

3.5 out of 5 Pistols


The simplest comparison for Sam Hawken's Camaro Espinoza would be that she is a smarter, female Jack Reacher. She helps those who can't help themselves and that help is usually takes the form of violence. Camaro has returned to her life as a charter captain in Miami following her last adventure in California. This was a bit of a surprise initially as the majority of the Camaro novels, novellas and stories have seen her moving around the country escaping her last bit of trouble. This is the third novel in the series, but there were initially four novellas, which are sadly no longer available from what I can see.

Camaro is hounded by Faith Glazer, who is looking to be trained in self defense personally by Camaro having learned of her reputation and Detective Ignacio Montellano wants to be her friend having taken an interest in Camaro in the first book, The Night Charter. Faith is being stalked and fears that her stalker will escalate things imminently. Ignacio's intentions are pure, but he is intrigued by Camaro and is looking out for her to ensure her past doesn't catch up with her.

The pace is slow to begin and throughout the book there was a certain lack of Camaro compared with other entries. This kind of made her motivations not quite as pure as the other books. The pace picks up once all the players enter the fray and there is a great build up of suspense that doesn't quite pay off, but that's more because it feels rushed in comparison with the rest of the book.

There were chapters throughout that could have been culled too as a lot of the chapters with the antagonists don't add a whole lot to proceedings. We get a feel for them and it likely adds to the suspense at the time, but in hindsight they weren't necessary. More of Camaro would've suited me.

It perhaps wasn't the perfect Camaro book, but she is an excellent character and I'll read anything else that Hawken writes about her or any other story for that matter.


Synopsis: Camaro doesn't particularly want to get involved with other people's lives, other people's problems. But she can tell that the woman in her gym is looking for help. And when she learns that Faith has a stalker, she agrees to give her a few defense lessons.
 
She's not expecting the stalker to become so violent so quickly. Or to have been hired by someone. Faith, it seems, has made some serious enemies... and now they're going after Camaro too.


They're about to find out that that was a mistake.