Title: A Dream Within A Dream
Author: Mike Nappa & Melissa Kosci
Genre: Suspense
Series: #3 Coffey & Hill
Publisher: Revell
Release date: 2 June 2020
Pages: 416
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About the Book
Trudi Coffey only realizes that she hasn’t seen Samuel Hill in weeks when the FBI shows up asking questions about him. After a strange encounter with an armed man demanding her help and an attack by a member of the Boston mob looking for someone named Dream, Trudi manages to find Samuel–or rather, he finds her. He’s made some pretty powerful enemies, but right now his full attention is on protecting Dream from the mob. Because Dream has something they want–the map to the location of artwork stolen from the Gardener Museum during the infamous 1990 heist.
With danger closing in from all sides, Trudi and Samuel will have to call on all of their allies to keep Dream safe and discover the identity of the people who have been hunting down Samuel. The real questions are whom can they trust? And who will make it out of this thing alive?
Excerpt
“Get. Down.”
He’s driving too fast, looking too often at his rearview mirror. The world outside us is a strange, pale kind of twilight. There’s no sun in the sky that I can see, yet there’s still some kind of half-light, as if day is resisting night, refusing to go to bed like an ill-tempered child.
The gun resting on the console between us is still warm.
I could take it, I think. I could grab that pistol while he’s distracted. But the steel in his voice makes me think twice. He did just kill a man, after all. I can still smell the wet, hot copper spray that blew from the dead man’s body when the bullets hit.
The driver glances at me now, scowling.
It’s a tight fit, even for someone with my bit of pudge, but I slide off the passenger seat anyway and try to squeeze into the leg space below. Apparently, I’m not good at this.
“Farther,” he snaps. “All the way down. So no one can see you, even if we stop at a red light.”
If we stop at a red light?
The sedan lurches left, hard, but the tires don’t squeal. He guns the engine and, briefly, I feel dizzy, like I might have a concussion, like I might throw up if I’m given half a chance. Instead, I press myself deeper into the floorboards until he glances at me and nods. Then he does a double take.
“Don’t you spew in my car. You understand?”
I nod and close my eyes. Seems a lot to ask of me at this point, not to throw up. But I don’t want to argue.
“You spew, and I’ll put you in the trunk with everything else.”
His accent is strong, harsh, and hard to follow. I’m not from New England. Didn’t grow up here and never quite mastered the nuances of the brash northeastern accent. For instance, to me that last threat sounded like, “Yah s’puh an ahl pudya in tha trunk wid everthin’ else.” It takes me a second to process what he’s saying, and that seems to make him angry. He taps the brakes and leans down toward me while making another left turn. “Yah unnerstan?”
I nod again. I understand. There’s nothing to do about it now except pay attention and make sure my mind translates his words—fast.For a longer excerpt, visit Revell Books
Review
Okay, first things first: What was that ending?! Second: when will the next book be out?
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me tell you one of the main reasons I’ve enjoyed each of the books in this series so far: the characters. Not just Samuel Hill and Trudi Coffey (in fact, Trudi had to grow on me a bit) but the other primary characters in each of the books. They’re definitely not your run-of-the-mill characters, but neither do they feel like they’re deliberately unusual. They just are who they are, and that’s a key part of what has made each story an intriguing read.
In the case of Dream, part of the intrigue lies in the fact that he’s blocking some of his memories as a result of the trauma he’s experienced. He also comes across as lost, vague, down-and-out, and a passive victim of circumstance, and yet as the story goes on, we find out he’s actually stronger than he appears. And then that ending… I don’t want to give anything away, but, come again? I really do need to read it again to try and sort out what happened. But anyway, as with Annabel Lee and The Raven from the previous books in the series, I loved the uniqueness of his character.
Samuel Hill and Trudi Coffey remind me a little bit of Nick and Nora with their banter, except that while Nick and Nora are happily married, Sam and Trudi are happily divorced. Kind of. At least, that’s what Trudi has been telling herself. I’m not sure Samuel was ever really on board, but he can’t blame her, either. He’s created quite the mess, and that’s part of what this story is about, even if it’s largely in the background. I have a feeling that will change in the next book… And as flawed as he may be as a human being, he’s a fascinating character to watch when he’s in his element as an agent/private detective. Bold, brash, cheeky, and just downright entertaining. And Trudi and Eula (her assistant) don’t pull any punches either.
When it comes to the stories themselves, you kind of just hang on for the ride once you start, and you never know what’s going to happen next. I did feel as though the story got a little bit muddied at times, as there were references to people they’d encountered in previous stories whom I didn’t remember particularly well, and I wasn’t sure exactly how they fitted into this story. I get the feeling there’s a bigger picture I’m not quite seeing yet, but I’m not sure whether that’s deliberate on the part of the authors or just me needing to read the stories again to take in all the relevant details. Or maybe I’m just wrong altogether. It has been known to happen. 😉
In any case, I’m eager to know what comes next for Hill & Coffey.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
About the Author
Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at PopFam.com, as well as a bestselling and award-winning author with more than one million books sold worldwide. When he was a kid, the stories of Edgar Allen Poe scared him silly. Today he owns everything Poe ever wrote. A former fiction acquisitions editor, Mike earned his MA in English literature and now writes full-time. He is the author of Annabel Lee and The Raven.
Connect with Mike: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Melissa Kosci is a fourth-degree black belt in and certified instructor of Songahm Taekwondo. In her day job as a commercial property manager, she secretly notes personal quirks and funny situations, ready to tweak them into colorful additions for her books. She and Corey, her husband of twenty years, live in Florida, where they do their best not to melt in the sun.
I can’t wait to read this book!!! I loved the first two in the series and it’s been much too long since I last spent time with Samuel and Trudi. After reading the excerpt and your review I’m looking forward to jumping back into the thick of it with them again.