Carol Golden is asked to help find a serial killer, and finds that the person may be tied to her past, lost to her by amnesia.
Somebody is killing people who work for subsidiaries of conglomerate Ault Enterprises and playing some kind of game while doing it. Carol Golden is called on to help identify the killer because she has experience in breaking codes and playing games. Amy O’Connor, a former scam artist and long-distance hiker with an eye for men, becomes her partner by accident, and together they search for clues in interesting places. The hunt takes them to the tops of significant mountain peaks in the United States, including Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental U.S., and to other unusual locales such as the thinly populated Lost Coast region of northern California. Carol finds that incidents in her past that are lost to her because of her amnesia may come back to haunt her before she can win this deadly game.
Professional Reviews
Melinda Hills for Readers Favorite
Seemingly unconnected murders are occurring across the United States and only the head of Ault Enterprises realizes they are not random. Your Move: Carol Golden Book 7 by Alan Cook has Cynthia Sakai, alias Carol Golden, helping Kyle Robertson figure out the elaborate game this killer is playing in order to prevent further murders. With murders of Ault employees taking place on some of the highest mountain peaks in the US and strange clues accompanying each one, Kyle turns to Cynthia to engage the murderer and try to beat him at his own game. Through careful deduction and the help of a new friend, Cynthia tracks down names and faces from her past. Police are reluctant to become involved since the crimes occurred in three different states and they don’t see a connection, but all the victims worked for subsidiaries of the same parent company, Ault Enterprises. Traveling from site to site, the situation begins to make sense to Carol and Kyle. It is just a matter of time before they can flush out the killer or, that is, until a real surprise challenges their theories and puts them in danger.
Alan Cook’s tight writing draws you into this delightful mystery from the first page and holds on to you until the very end. Great characters, realistic dialogue and plenty of action as well as the unique addition of a ‘game’ distinguishes Your Move from many other books in the genre, giving you plenty to enjoy. Carol Golden is a deep woman with an interesting past, making her a special type of heroine. Even though this is book 7 in the series, it is quite readable as a stand-alone story with just enough background to fill in some blanks without leaving you confused. Cook has a great handle on pleasing readers and you are sure to enjoy this murder/mystery story and all the others that come before and after.
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Reviews for "Your Move: A Carol Golden Novel"
Reviewed by Michael Hartnett
5/8/2018
A Mystery of Prodigious Games
Your Move (A Carol Golden Novel) by Alan Cook is clever and intriguing cat-and-mouse mystery where the hunter is often the hunted. A heroine with a rich and slightly sordid past, Carol is brought into murder investigations at Ault Enterprises specifically for her ability to play games and crack puzzles. A mathematician by training and a detective at heart, Carol has to find the connections among victims who work for subsidiaries of Ault, are found in the mountains, and are marked with the titular note: “Your Move.”
Indeed, Carol is the type of investigator who will climb Mount Whitney just to get her hands on a small clue. Against her ingenious target, she is thrown in the obscure mathematical game of Nim, a game that will hurtle her back to amnesic past. Your Move is quite engaging as there are terrific hiking scenes and many interactions of romantic tension between old flames and new men of interest, not only with Carol, but with her beautiful free-spirit sidekick Amy.
As the plot twists and turns, the surprises keep coming. Carol is constantly vulnerable as she doggedly pursues the case. And yet she forges ahead. The climactic scenes at the cabins are quite original for subversive gamesmanship. Simply put, Your Move is loads of crafty fun.
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