Alter Ego: The Jonathan Stride series, Book 9

Another great Jonathan Stride book. Great characters. Lots of suspense, surprises, and twists in the plot. Plenty of surprises. A really good story!

This is really an in depth story making it a rather complicated story. At times it moves a bit too slowly. However, it was impossible for me to figure out the guilty party until near the very end.If you like the Jonathan Stride series, this one has most of Freeman's characters well woven into the story. It's a very good Stride addition.

It is another cold & snowy winter in Duluth, Minnesota, although there is something different and exciting about this winter. Hollywood is in town, filming the movie “The Caged Girl”, and staring the famous actor Dean Casperson. The film is about three murders that happened in Duluth 11-years earlier. Over time three women disappeared. Lieutenant Jonathan Stride, the head of Duluth’s homicide division and his team are tracking the disappearances.Clues lead Lt. Stride to a hunting cabin out of town. In the cabin, near death, locked in a cage without water or food is Lori Fulkerson. Stride saves her and shortly after the police discover the missing women buried on that property. The other women also died in that cage. The movie version is the disappearance of these women and the rescue of Lori. The clues led to a man. Arrested and convicted. Dean Casperson, the actor, plays the role of Lt. Stride, but using a fictitious name.There is excitement in Duluth having the film crew with well-known male and female actors in their city. Still, there are other events that are happening that need to be investigated. A young college-age woman volunteering as an intern on the movie set disappears. A young teenage girl dies in the cold behind her house, while her parents were in Minneapolis. A man dies on a snowy country road. He has no identification. He has a gun, which when tested was recently fired. The Duluth police have their work cut out for them. Could these events be tied into the movie being filmed? Perhaps, what happened 11-years earlier is not what it seemed.This reader recently completed author Brian Freeman’s recently released “Funeral for a Friend”, which was an exciting read. That was his 10th novel in the Jonathan Stride series. His previous novel in this series was “Alter Ego”, which was published in 2018. Not remembering what the novel was about, he pulled it off his library shelf and got excited. He purchased the novel when it was released, but for some reason failed to read it. What an exciting novel it was. For this reader, Brian Freeman is simply one of the best novelists in the United States today!

First off, this one is complicated. Two vehicles and a deer are involved in an accident outside of Duluth. A driver is killed. He has masked his identity but his car contains a gun that has been used to kill at least two people, one of the murders occurring in Florida. Conclusion: we have found John Doe, hitman. Then a young woman disappears in Duluth. Are the events connected? Eventually we discover that the woman killed in Florida has the same name as a woman killed in Duluth. The latter appears to have been stalking or investigating a film star.The film star is Jonathan Stride's 'alter ego'. He is playing him in a film being shot on location in Duluth, the subject of which is a set of serial murders from the past. The last near-victim (saved by Jonathan just before she expired) is still around and may be involved in the current events in some way.So we have a James Lee Burke out-of-the-past story with a set of nefarious and sleazy Hollywood types knocking around the protagonist's home town. But then it becomes even more complicated. The Florida case was investigated by none other than Cab Bolton, the protagonist in Brian Freeman's other crime series, who develops a quick yen for Stride's Asian partner and is soon persuaded to leave his warm and sunny climes and come to Duluth to help with the case there.As complicated as this may sound, it is all presented with complete clarity and lucidity. All of the members of Stride's ensemble cast play a role in the case (Cat plays a major role) and we have all of the makings of a traditional Jonathan Stride novel: interesting characters, a fully realized setting, a complex plot, a good mystery, a little nice misdirection and beaucoup psychological tension.Bottom line: if this is not the best JS novel, it is right up there with the best of them. Do not miss it.

In order to truly enjoy a book, I have three simple rules.1. I don’t want to be bored. Alter Ego is an intense story, and I read and enjoyed every single page. No lengthy back-stories, nothing overly descriptive, just the good stuff. This story is fast-paced with great dialogue. Absolutely zero boring parts.2. The characters have to be awesome. Brian Freeman nailed it again, as he does with every book I’ve read of his. Aside from having weird names,(I’ve read enough of his novels; a lot of his characters have weird names with weird spellings) none of his characters is perfect; even the “good guys” have some skeletons in their closets. In my opinion, that makes them relatable and unpredictable.3. No cliffhangers! I can’t stand reading a 400 page story only to get to the end and discover that I have to wait another year for the next book to be published in order to find out what happened. All of the Stride novels are stand-alone stories, and although I would suggest reading them in order from the beginning, it’s not necessary. Each book has its own plot, twists and turns, and a dramatic conclusion. Mr Freeman usually ends each novel with just enough intrigue to make me look forward to the next one.Alter Ego delivers the trifecta (or hat trick, as this is set in Minnesota.) I will be recommending it to everyone I know who hasn’t already read it.

A very good book with a strong plot and a number of well developed characters. A compelling read with a satisfying end.

A must read book. I enjoyed it immensely. Good story, well written, and interesting

This is a great thriller. Could not stop reading. I am looking forward to read more from Brian Freeman Sion.

Brian Freeman is my favorite writer. This thriller is amazing as all Jonathan Stride novels.

This author can write and I mean really write. His characters are all so very real you can practically see them in your minds eye. You develop and I know this sounds odd but you actually do develop feelings for them. I love the characters in this book as if I personally know them. His stories are complex yet they flow with ease much like a canoe winding its way down the rapids. Fast, furious, intriguing and very, very clever. Thank you once again for an amazing book.

I couldn't download this and others ordered during the month of November....my password has been rejected every time.