Nikki Griffin is a the owner of a used bookstore called The Brimstone Magpie. Her best friend Jess is the day-to-day manager, and the bookstore is filled with comfortable chairs and the smell of coffee and groups of people reading and talking.
But Nikki is not your typical bookstore owner, and their book club isn’t a typical group of readers. Nikki has a second profession. She finds people. Sometimes it’s just to take photos. Sometimes it’s more. She may be taking photos of a philandering spouse. Or she may be breaking a nose and a rub or two to let a boyfriend with a temper know that he is no longer allowed to lay a hand on his partner. The book club at the Magpie is filled with women who have found themselves in need of Nikki’s special services, and together they find the support they need to build a new life.
However, the day that Gregg Gunn came into her office raised the stakes for Nikki.
Gunn is the CEO of a tech firm, Care4, that develops baby monitors and sophisticated software to increase a parent’s ability to keep an eye on their infant. But he has an employee, Karen Li, who he suspects is selling trade secrets to other companies. Gunn hires Nikki to keep an eye on her. He says that he can’t go to a bigger investigative firm, because then his competition would know that something is up. So he’s come to Nikki for help, with a whole lot of cash.
Nikki thinks that the job sounds easy enough and starts to follow Karen Li. But the deeper in she gets, the more her Spidey Sense is pinging, so she tries something unusual—she talks to Karen. And Karen tells her that there is far more going on than what Gregg told her. Live are in danger because of Gregg and Care4. but before Nikki can learn more, Karen is brutally murdered. Nikki will have to rely on all of her training and her friends to figure out what the danger is and to keep everyone safe. But with the deadline coming fast and killers coming after her, will she be able to stop the coming danger? Will she even be able to save herself and those she loves most?
Save Me from Dangerous Men is the first in the series from author S.A. Lelchuk starring the anti-hero Nikki Griffin, and it is a dark yet hopeful thriller that would appeal to readers of Lee Reacher or Preston and Child or Louisa Luna. Nikki is clearly the star of this show, as this novel is more about her than about the crime or the investigation. There is a lot about her background, how she found herself on the path she’s on, which isn’t bad necessarily but it might be a little off-putting to those who prefer a plot-based novel.
I really like Nikki. She’s a book nerd but also a fighter. She levels the playing field for those who can’t, and she cares deeply for those close to her. But she’s also willing to shoot to kill or to knock out some teeth when the situation calls for it. She is unapologetic, and she is heroic. But she is also flawed, so she seems incredibly human. I wish I felt as strongly about this story, but it seemed to bounce around between present and past, between her motivations and her moving forward, but I think that now that we know her origin story the future books in the series will be stronger. Overall, I think Save Me from Dangerous Men is a very good first book in a series, starring a character with lots of promise.
I listened to this one on audio, and I thought narrator January LaVoy really brought Nikki’s voice to life. It wasn’t always easy to listen to this story, because it is dark and violent in places. But LaVoy brought a lot of warmth and compassion to Nikki’s voice, so there were payoffs to those dark scenes, and she makes the payoff worth it. I liked this one on audio, but I think you have to know what you’re getting into with this one to want to listen all the way to the end.
Egalleys for Save Me from Dangerous Men were provided by Flatiron Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but I bought the audio version myself through Chirp.
