Jodi Compton's Hailey Cain Returns in July

Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot: A Novel by Jodi Compton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is not the actual edition I read but since the uncorrected proof which I won in the Goodreads Giveaway is not listed I am using the hard cover edition. This is one of the best first reads I have won and it apparently is the seond in a series with Hailey Cain, a West Point dropout ( not really) and present day member of an all girl LA gang ( really ) As a matter of fact she is the only white member and is the blond lieutenant,Insula, for the leader, Serena "Warchild" Delgadilla, a friend since high school. Serena's original second in command, "Trippy" Rosa was removed to give Hailey this position and Rosa is not only bitter she has vowed to remove both Insula and Warchild and take over the gang.



As if this were not enough to cope with Magnus Ford, the anti-gang detective for the LAPD seems to be interested in the doings of Warchild. None of this is as pressing as the soon to be released APB for the arrest of Hailey Cain for the murder of two people in San Francisco, one of whom was an off duty cop. In actuality, Serena and Hailey, at the time of the murders, were hijacking, not one, but two semis loaded with pharmaseuticals outside LA. The evidence is pretty strong however, since Hailey's ID and gun were used in the SF crime. Her finger print is on the casing of the bullet that killed the cop and Hailey has been living in LA under the radar so she will have a tough time proving she has not been in SF.



The story is fast paced and there are all types of characters, made men with whom Hailey has a history, a scam artist who used her ID to finagle her way into the trust of a rich widow in SF, a cute cop and his boss, the aforementioned Magnus Ford, who does not believe Hailey is guilty. How Hailey and Serena discover the whereabouts of the real killer and the final thrilling car-bike chase through the hills of LA keeps you turning the pages wondering what will happen next.



The final solution to it all leaves it open ended as Hailey gives up the dream of a romance with her cousin--strange --and agrees to join Magnus in his new post - retirement security business.



I have to read the first book, Hailey's War, because though Compton fills in a lot of her backstory I'd still like more detail of what went on in Hailey's life before this episode. And I am surely putting this author on a watch list so that I will read the next installment of Hailey's adventures.



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