This month for our Throwback book we’re diving into Full Disclosure by Dee Henderson. It is a bit of a mystery combined with romance, a cold case to solve, and some political intrigue. It is a book we’ve reread many a time.
Full Disclosure by Dee Henderson
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Ann Silver is a cop’s cop. As the Midwest Homicide Investigator, she is called in to help local law enforcement on the worst of cases, looking for answers to murder. Hers is one of the region’s most trusted investigative positions.
Paul Falcon is the FBI’s top murder cop in the Midwest. If the victim carried a federal badge or had a security clearance, odds are good Paul and his team see the case file or work the murder.
Their lives intersect when Ann arrives to pass a case off her desk and onto his. A car wreck and a suspicious death offer a lead on a hired shooter he is tracking. Paul isn’t expecting to meet someone, the kind that goes on the personal side of the ledger, but Ann Silver has his attention.
The better he gets to know her, the more Paul realizes her job barely scratches the surface of who she is. She knows spies and soldiers and U.S. Marshals, and has written books about them. She is friends with the former Vice President. People with good reason to be cautious about who they let into their lives deeply trust her. Paul wonders just what secrets Ann is keeping, until she shows him the John Doe Killer case file, and he starts to realize just who this lady he is falling in love with really is…
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Review of Full Disclosure
Full Disclosure is a book that combines my favorite things: cold case mysteries, jaw-dropping secrets, and a touch of romance. Dee Henderson is a master at crafting a well-laid-out story with suspense and a compelling mystery.
Many people know Dee Henderson for her O’Malley family series that follows all the siblings in the O’Malley family. This book is about the supposed “writer” of those books, Ann Silver.
Ann Silver is a Midwest homicide investigator (a position you have to be voted into) and a small-town sheriff. One unique thing I appreciated about Ann Silver is that she is not giving up all her secrets right out of the gate. We gradually get to know her throughout the book, though I think her counterpart, Paul Falcon, says it best, ”No one figures out a woman like Ann; you just hope to get to the center of it right before you make a fool of yourself. She’s interesting. I like interesting.”
Paul Falcon is an FBI agent pretty high up in the food chain. He meets Ann Silver when she drops a clue on his desk that breathes new life into his decades-old case of a hit woman with over 30 kills known to her name. The clue Ann Silver leaves ends up being a much larger linchpin than either of them bargained for, and thus a grand unraveling of secrets starts to unfold. There are voice recordings of the people who hired the hitwomen coming to light and exposing some very interesting people to the light.
This case was one that sticks with you. Dee Henderson wrote Full Disclosure with many different threads that were all carefully interwoven. When she pulled on one string, you could see the others tremble. I’ll be honest: I rarely, if ever, can’t guess where a mystery will take me within the first few chapters. However, with this story, I was pleasantly surprised not to know how the story would end until the last few chapters unfolded.
The dialogue between characters was carefully laid out, creating a rather lengthy plot with the book at over 480 pages. However, those pages were wonderfully used. I loved the details given and the conversations between Paul and Ann. It is one book in which I came out feeling like I got to KNOW the characters; it is also one of the few books I have ever reread.
The cold case in Full Disclosure, combined with the political intrigue angle (oops, did I forget to mention that?), just made this book thrilling for me to read. It is not a fast-paced edge-of-your-seat thriller that I usually go for. Rather it is a slow build to a decisive and tumultuous ending. This book is on my shelf for life. I hope you will enjoy it too.
Other Books In The Series
Charlotte Graham is at the center of the most famous kidnapping in Chicago history.
The task force of FBI and local cops found her two abductors, killed them, rescued her, but it took four very long years. The fact she was found less than three miles from her home, had been there the entire time, haunts them. She’s changed her identity, found a profession she loves, and rebuilt her life.
She’s never said a word–to the cops, to her doctors, to family–about those four years.
A family legacy has brought her back to Chicago where a reporter is writing a book about the kidnapping. The cops who worked the case are cooperating with him. Her options are limited: Hope the reporter doesn’t find the full truth, or break her silence about what happened. And her silence is what has protected her family for years.
Bryce Bishop doesn’t know her past, he only knows she has coins to sell from her grandfather’s estate–and that the FBI director for the Chicago office made the introduction. The more he gets to know Charlotte, the more interested he becomes, an interest encouraged by those closest to her. But nothing else is working in his favor–she’s decided she is single for life, she struggles with her faith, and she’s willing to forego a huge inheritance to keep her privacy. She’s not giving him much of an opening to work with.
Charlotte wants to trust him. She needs to tell him what happened. Because a crime cops thought was solved, has only opened another chapter…
About Dee Henderson
Dee Henderson is the author of 27 non-fiction and fiction titles, including Jesus our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus the Truth and the Life, The Good News Project, Taken and the acclaimed O’MALLEY series. Several titles have appeared on the USA Today Bestseller list; Full Disclosure has also appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. For details visit: DeeHenderson.com
