Last Resort

Treasure Trail, Book 3

By: Morgan Brice

Narrated by: John Solo

Weird things are happening again in Cape May and the ghosts of old mobsters never rest easy.
Erik Mitchell gets a strange delivery of antique poker chips with odd markings tied to a casino that burned a century ago. Ben Nolan finds a dead guy in one of his rental units—turns out the guy's been missing for twenty years and is linked to a long-lost treasure.

The ghostly energy of the old Commodore Wilson hotel juices up all the town's spirits, and a stranger shows up with an unhealthy interest in both cases. Ben and Erik have just moved in together, and they're still navigating the next step as partners and blending their lives.

Murder, missing persons, hidden treasure, and haunted poker chips. Can Ben and Erik put the pieces together to solve the case, or when the cards are dealt, will they be left holding the dead man's hand?

Contains mature themes.

©2024 Gail Z. Martin (P)2025 Tantor Media

Disappointing…

This story was brutally slow and not nearly as well written as the first two in the series. Unfortunately, the dialogue got progressively worse throughout the series and wasn’t helped by the author seeming to try to make fun of it in this final book. “…and we’re back to cheesy porn” one character quips. That would be funny if it wasn’t the tendency with all the dialogue…like bad Lifetime/Hallmark movie meets 70’s TV detective meets soft core late-night cable porn. At least the first two books in the series had interesting enough potlines to counterbalance character dialogue.

To top it all off, there was a significant chatacter break - in the first two books, Erik isn’t able to hear or talk to ghosts. This is a point that was repeatedly emphasized by the author, but this book breaks with that premise without any explanation.

Like I said, this was a disappointing end that felt like forced word-count. Maybe I’m being nit-picky, but hey, I paid for this with some anticipation to see how the guys end up.

Hopefully the author adds another book to try to redeem themselves from this one.

It was ok

I found it didn’t keep my attention. It wasn’t bad, but I wish it had a different plot than the mob and the hotel coming back to haunt them. The supporting cast was interesting and I liked the showdown at the end.