Hello Readers, I have some fabulous news!

I don’t know about you, but I love a strong, kickass and take names, female protagonist that will take me on an adventure I will not soon forget and DV Berkom has done that in spades with her latest thriller, Cargo.

I love the strong cover and double exposure that makes me want to look through and behind the pages. There is so much going on in this novel, that by the time I got to the end, I heaved a sigh of relief, but the thoughts kept coming.

Add me to Goodreads now.

MY REVIEW

DV Berkom writes some fantastic thriller fiction and her latest, Cargo, does not disappoint. In fact, I think she took it up a notch. I anticipated a great read and wondered who Leine will be killing today. The twists and turns the characters and I went through kept the suspense building as the level of danger grew.

DV Berkom writes of strong, kickass, female protagonists and Leine Basso is a prime example. She is a complex character that is hard on the outside, with a soft filling. She is an expert shot and skilled in hand to hand combat. She wants to save everyone. Is it to atone for the guilt she carries from her past life as an assassin? How many lives has she ruined? Does she deserve the happiness she has found with Detective Santiago Jensen? She will do whatever is necessary to achieve her goal and right now, it is to rescue Kylie.

Kylie had been abducted while backpacking overseas and she was in for a horrific experience. She wondered what would become of her. Would they rape her? Would they take her organs and dump her somewhere far from home, never to be found? Would they sell her to the highest bidder? Or worse?

Things don’t go the way Leine plans and she ends up in need of rescue herself. She teams up with Derek, who is locked on the ship with her, bound for Africa. He is a poacher and Africa is his home. We will see him grow and develop as DV Berkom takes us on this wild African adventure of…

Poaching, terrorists, animals parading as men. Leine will learn more than she ever wanted to know about poaching and the men behind it. Their brutality and lack of respect for life, whether human or animal is beyond my comprehension. Women are treated as less than human, sold, traded, bartered and murdered at will.

The debasement and abuse heaped on Kylie by another woman totally shocked me. I wasn’t prepared for that. How depraved must she be to have no empathy, taking delight at treating her like a dog, or worse. I cannot imagine the terror Kylie felt thinking she may die.

I know this is fiction, but it reeks of realism. I was so angry about it all. I can see the women huddled in dank, dirty surroundings, scared out of their minds. I can see the herd of elephants after being brutally murdered and mutilated for their ivory. I recently read about their tusks being dyed pink so they no longer have any value. I agree with Leine’s feelings of disgust with the men who think they can do whatever they want without consequence. I want to see them get theirs.

Wang is a poacher and hopes to become the king of canned hunts, but that is only one of his criminal enterprises. I am hoping, crossing my fingers and talking to the book, please, please, please, make sure he gets what he deserves. I want him to come across someone who can mete out an appropriate punishment. A quick death wouldn’t be good enough for me. He needs to suffer horribly.

April is a bonus and I hope her role will grow as DV Berkom expands on the series. I am very curious about her. Leine is her mother and they were estranged for many years, but they had something in common. They had both been abducted. I know April has a story to tell and I want to hear it. What say you, DV?

I read a blog post of DV Berkom’s in which she talks of the research she does and I can see it paying off in a big way. The depth and details of the events and how the characters dealt with them were horrific, yet uplifting.

Cargo unfolds at a steady pace as DV Berkom takes us into a dangerous world of abduction, animal and human trafficking, poaching, canned hunts and terrorists. As we travel from the United States, to Bangkok, to sub-Saharan Africa the danger mounts, tension increases and the suspense has me reading faster, telling myself no peeking. When I turned the last page, I sat, just thinking. How cool is that, when a book won’t let you go, even after you have finished reading it? That is why DV Berkom is an author to have on your must read list.

I received Cargo by DV Berkom in return for an honest and unbiased review.

  5 Stars

SYNOPSIS

The latest action-packed Leine Basso Crime Thriller–NOW AVAILABLE!

Money–the universal merchant. Anyone can be bought, anyone can be sold.

Anyone.

Haunted by memories of an op gone bad, former assassin Leine Basso travels to Bangkok in search of a missing backpacker. With help from an old contact, she discovers the man responsible for the girl’s disappearance is connected to a violent Hong Kong triad and is the linchpin of an extensive trafficking network–both animal and human.

Making enemies isn’t new for Leine, but making one in the triad is–she soon finds herself a prisoner on board a cargo ship headed for sub-Saharan Africa. To ensure her survival and to continue her hunt for the missing girl, she must join forces with Derek, an ivory poacher who promises to help her.

For a price.

As her involvement intensifies, Leine delves deeper into a disturbing and treacherous criminal underworld where everything has a price.

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR