Abducted by Janice Cantore

Carly Edwards is back on patrol with her partner Joe. They get a call telling them to go to the hospital as Joe's wife has just been brought in. Joe and his wife have a 4 month old little boy named AJ. He too is brought into the hospital to be checked over to make sure everything is well with him. As Joe's wife spends days unconscious while the doctors run tests to find out what is wrong, AJ is abducted from the hospital by an unknown woman. Carly is determined to find out where AJ is and who took him.

Nick is Carly's ex husband. They have been working on reconciling but now Nick is backing off leaving Carly confused and angry. Ever since Nick was shot and been in rehab he's been acting differently towards Carly. Carly thought since both of their lives had changed with their commitment to Christ that things were going in the right direction. Not only is her relationship with Nick off, but also her relationship with her roommate and best friend Andrea has become rocky.

Between following clues to finding AJ and her relationships with Nick and Andrea, Carly learns that she must first and foremost put her trust in Christ.

Abducted is the second book in the Pacific Coast Justice series. I'm really enjoying this series. I like the strong character of Carly. She can be tough when she needs to be for the job, but she can also be soft and caring for the people in her life. The pace of the book moved along quickly and never seemed to lag. Several times I found myself on the edge of my seat waiting for some scene to play out before I could relax. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series. If you like strong female characters with a bit of mystery and suspense thrown in with some romance this is a great series for you!

I purchased my copy of Abducted from Amazon.

Code of Silence by Tim Shoemaker

Cooper and his friends Gordy and Hiro love hanging out at Frank-n-Stein's restaurant. Frank is like a grandfather figure to them. He helps them with their school work and he serves the most amazing chocolate monster shakes. They stay late one evening to play one last arcade game while Frank closes and cleans up when a robbery takes place. Cooper and his friends manage to hide but see everything that happens. The robbers are wearing masks so they cannot identify them. Frank is beat into a coma. While the thieves are upstairs breaking into the safe Cooper manages to grab the security hard drive and they all sneak out of the restaurant. Unfortunately Coop doesn't make it very far before one of the thieves catches him and manages to threaten him before a crowd shows up.

Having seen that two of the thieves seemed to be wearing policemen uniforms Cooper is afraid to go to the police with the information. He doesn't know who they can trust. He comes up with the idea of having a Code of Silence in order to keep them all safe from the thieves. Cooper finds that maintaining silence comes with a price. He finds himself having to lie to his parents, his teachers, his friends, himself and ultimately to God.

Hiro wants to be a police officer when she grows up. She encourages Cooper to tell their parents what they saw. Cooper insists that it would be too dangerous. Hiro finds she can no longer trust Coop because of his lies. Gordy tries to maintain the peace between his two friends. Will Coopers lies be the end of their friendship? And will  his keeping this secret from his parents put him in more danger than he originally thought?

I really thought this was a great suspense novel for middle grade readers. The suspense is spread throughout the story from the robbery, to the suspense of wondering if the police were going to catch up with them, to the grand finale. I liked also how the author showed that even though Cooper thought he was doing the best thing by keeping a code of silence from the adults around him, that once you lie you have to continue to lie to cover up the first lie. And that through those lies you lose friends and the trust that those friends have in you. I thought that was a great moral lesson in the story. I liked the fact that Hiro confronted Cooper about his lies. One thing that I found was a bit unrealistic was the fact that these kids were out running around the neighborhood late into the evenings on school nights and their parents didn't seem to have a problem with it. But over all this was a good read.

Face of Betrayal by Lis Wiehl with April Henry

Katie Converse disappears while walking her dog one day. Katie is a 17 year old Senate Page home for vacation when she disappears. Everything seems perfect in her life until the FBI start looking into her last days.

Three professional women help investigate the crime. They laughingly call themselves The Triple Threat Club.

Allison is a federal prosecutor. It is her job to find enough evidence to indict the Senator who was Katie's mentor. Everything seems to point to him being the killer. Not only is Allison helping to investigate the case, but in her own personal life someone is threatening to kill her.

Nicole Hedges is a special agent with the FBI. She is the one chosen to make contact with the Converse family. She is a single mom who has sworn off men.

Cassidy Shaw is a television reporter. Scrambling to stay in the media spotlight, Katie's case may just be the career booster that Cassidy needs to make it to the top.

Each woman plays an integral part in solving what happened to Katie while dealing with things in their personal lives.

I really liked Face of Betrayal and look forward to reading more about the Triple Threat Club women. They are strong female characters that stick together and help each other in the good and the bad times. Face of Betrayal introduces the group and I'm looking forward to getting to know them more in the books to come. If you like a good suspense with strong female characters then this is for you!