Tahoe Payback (Owen McKenna – 15) by Todd Borg
The First Body Is Found On Lake Tahoe’s Only Island
When a man tells Tahoe Detective Owen McKenna that his girlfriend disappeared, McKenna wonders if the woman got cold feet and ran away. But when she turns up murdered on Fannette Island with red roses in her mouth, McKenna discovers that she used a scam charity to steal millions.
More Bodies Follow
A second victim is found with a tennis ball crammed into his mouth. A third has military medals in his cheeks. McKenna suspects that these victims also ran fraudulent charities.
McKenna’s Own Girlfriend Fears Attack
While McKenna investigates the murders, his girlfriend Street Casey has reason to believe that her ex-con father, who’s jumped parole, wants revenge for her testimony that put in him in prison decades ago.
A Twisted Killer Plans A Devastating Climax
It appears that the victims are all payback targets of a vigilante killer. McKenna finds lots of potential suspects. But he can’t link any of them to the crimes. What he doesn’t know is that both he and his girlfriend are about to face someone who wants them very dead…
Author’s Bio
Todd Borg and his wife moved from Minnesota to Lake Tahoe in 1990. After his fourth Tahoe novel, he sold his business to write full time.
In addition to winning the Ben Franklin Award for Best Mystery of the Year, Todd Borg’s Owen McKenna mysteries have been chosen for Top 5 Mystery lists by the prestigious Library Journal, and by Mystery News Reviewer G. Wedgwood. He’s won Best Mystery and Best Thriller honors from the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association and received Best New Fiction accolades from libraries. His novels have also received starred reviews and raves in major trade journals and newspapers across the country.
Todd Borg and his wife live on Lake Tahoe’s South Shore.
My Review
5 stars
Owen McKenna is asked to look into the disappearance of Douglas Fairbanks female friend, Isadore. She is found but she has been hung upside down, exposed to a cold storm, and had three roses shoved into her mouth and through her cheek. Sounds strange until Owen starts looking into her. It seems she was involved in charities. Owen starts looking into how many people have learned to work the system to profit from the donations to their charities.
But this is not a one-time kill. Another charity owner is found hung from a flag pole with a tennis ball in his mouth. Then another off a train that stops in Truckee with a medal in his cheek. Someone is hunting down those that have been ripping donors off for years. It’s up to Owen to find the killer before more charity owners get strung up.
Owen gets a crash course in charities, how they work, and how easy it is to use then to scam millions from people. It’s scary to think that this actually happens in real life. I can completely relate to the killer and don’t blame him but then again you can’t have people doing random killings.
Other part to this story is about Street. I love this woman, she has gone through hell and has become such a strong, independent woman. I love how Owen works with her with valid self-defense techniques. He loves her enough to give her the space she wants.
You can’t go wrong with a Todd Borg story. You will be one your toes guessing and who the killer is and you will learn more than just a customary glance at the topic of the stories. For Tahoe Payback it was charities. I have to say that I am now more hesitant to donate to charities now.
I received Tahoe Payback from the author for free. This has in no way influenced my opinion of this book.
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