Review: Perilous Waters: A Jessie Madison Thriller by Terry Shames

The stay at the resort known as “Trophy Cay” should be a fun time for Jessie Madison and her roommate, Shelly. It better be as it took four hours on the high-speed ferry from Nassau. For Jessie, who is 23 and has worked as a dive instructor in the Bahamas the last three months, it is one final fling before she goes back to the mainland and deals with the wreckage of her life as the first book in a new series, Perilous Waters: A Jessie Madison Thriller, by Terry Shames begins.

 

Soon Jessie and Shelly run into Jean “Johnny” Durand, a local boat captain, and his friend, Nick Garnier. They spend the rest of the day hanging out together. While Jessie sees that Johnny and Nick clearly have something going on, even possible criminal activity, she continues to spend time with them. Johnny and Jessie have a bit of a flirting thing going on and soon wind up on the catamaran that Johnny is piloting for wealthy clients. After some strangeness on the dock as they are being watched, Johnny, pilots the boat out of the marina at the resort and takes it to a nearby isolated cove.

 

What should have been a quiet intimate night is soon interrupted by armed gunmen. While Jessie and Johnny do their best to resist, they are outmanned, and outgunned. Things quickly go from bad to worse and soon Jessie is in a desperate attempt to stay alive.

 

What follows is a read that is far different from the very good Samuel Craddock Mystery Series by the author. So different, in fact, if not for her name on the book, I would have thought it was written by somebody else. I grant that as a 62-year-old male, who has seen a thing or three, I am most likely not be the right audience for this book.

 

The 23-year-old heroine, Jessie, is incredibly ingenious and can create almost anything from various items at hand. She has incredible stamina and persistence. She has a lot of personal baggage which is gradually revealed over the course of this first book in the series. She’s personally complicated and can survive anything and everything.

 

What she does not have is a shred of common sense. She continues to put herself over and over again into situations that even at 23, she should know better. Even if the reader accepts that, her refusal to contact law enforcement of any type, after the first of her near-death experiences, and tell them what happened to her is very problematic. That refusal to contact law enforcement is complete unbelievable as she was, at one time, as noted on the book description, enrolled in the FBI training program. In fact, she does not tell anyone. Instead, she recovers from her first near death experience, and then starts her own investigation. That fact alone made it very hard for this reader to stay with the book.

 

What clearly does work is the author’s love of the islands and sailing. According to the bio, the author has considerable experience on the water and it shows. The settings are vivid and are done well.

 

It is several other elements, including the heroine refusing to do basic common-sense things for no good reason, that this reader had issue with through the entire book.

 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4cbbGcI

 

 

My reading copy from the publisher, Severn House, as an ARC by way of NetGalley.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2024