San Diego Dead by Mark Nolan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

San Diego Dead is the fourth book in the Jake Wolfe series by Mark Nolan. It is a thrilling mystery- with action, adventure, drama, danger, tension, twists & turns, assassins, cartels, narcoterrorists, violence, murder, gun fights, kidnapping, explosions, sharks, a high-stakes and dangerous game of cat and mouse…. and more.
We team up with Jake Wolfe (lawyer, ex-marine, and covert operative), and his genius ex war dog, Cody, as they set out to solve this mystery and save the day. Trouble seems to find Jake- and this story is no exception- as his holiday to unwind and relax takes a dangerous turn. He soon finds that he, Cody, and the ones they hold dear, are all in the sights of a dangerous cartel boss who has a twisted agenda that will put a lot of people in serious danger. Jake and Cody, with the help of some loyal friends , unravel the puzzle piece by piece- and set about hunting down a very important package before it gets into the wrong hands. The tension and danger mounts- as the enemy will stop at nothing to get what they want.
As expected, this is a fast paced story with lots of twists and surprising developments. I was hooked right from the beginning, reading it all in one sitting just to find out how it all plays out. The story is told from multiple POV’s- and even Cody, the dog has a perspective. This gave me a richer reading experience, because I had so much more information to work with.
As with all the books in this series, the characters are fantastic- they are really well developed and fully realised characters with their own quirky personalities. I especially love how incredibly detailed and developed Cody’s personality is- it’s this attention to detail that really sets this book/s apart from others in the same genre!
There were a few minor issues in this book which I haven’t seen occur in any of the other books- and has left me a little puzzled. Things I can’t go into in too much detail because I don’t want to give away any of the storyline. But as an example- Jake helps someone out of a hole, lifting them to his shoulders, before setting them down onto solid ground- then in the very next sentence he is in the hole with that person and lifting them out and onto the ground. So which way is it? It’s as if there were parts of the story where Mr. Nolan hadn’t fully decided which way he wanted to write it and so wrote both ways, maybe thinking to go back later and edit out one scenario and leave the other in- but some got missed in the process and so now we have two versions play out in the story. This didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the book, but I was ‘pulled out’ of the story when I came across them and had to re-read them just to be sure I hadn’t missed anything and was reading it right.
The story can definitely be read as a standalone- but there are recurring characters, elements, and details from previous books which are mentioned in passing in this story- so if you were to read all three of the other books before starting on this one, you would definitely have a richer and more enhanced experience of “San Diego Dead”.
There were quite a few emotional scenes through this book which made my heart ache. And even though the ‘romantic’ aspect of this book is secondary to the thriller/mystery, we watch as Jake and Sarah’s relationship hits a few rocky patches. So do they work things out, or will they part ways forever?
I also appreciated the interesting and informative ‘letter’ from the author at the end of the book. As it gave me even more to think about, while adding a personal touch to the story as well.
I LOVE all the book covers on this series- and I think this is my favourite one yet!
I can’t wait to see what Jake and Cody get up to next!

Thank you, Mr. Nolan!

Reviewed by @angelahayes

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