Fatal Mistake by Karen M. Davis

Publisher's Synopsis

Detective Lexie Rogers is tough, smart and at the top of her game. She's seen it all, from bikies, blood and betrayal to drugs, deviants and deception ... and the violent knife attack that almost killed her as a young cop on the beat.

Lexie's sent on the job of a lifetime -- to go deep undercover, as beautiful Lara Wild, a drug distributor, to expose a huge dealing ring among Sydney's most treacherous criminals. What she discovers is that being undercover is the safest place to be, especially when you're a cop with target on your head, but one false move means she'll die. And creeping from the shadows is the darkness of her past, something she can never outrun.

Lexie knows she can't trust anyone -- but the trouble is, she's not even sure if she can trust herself.

My Review of Fatal Mistake by Karen M. Davis

Fatal Mistake is the 3rd book in the Lexie Rogers police procedural series set in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. It kicks off with a bang with an explosion at a bikie gang’s clubhouse while a bike show was being held. If it were designed to get the reader’s attention, it worked and it promises a high intensity story to follow.

In this third outing, Lexie is now working in the undercover unit where she’s taking part in an operation to bring down a major drugs syndicate thought to be operating out of a Kings Cross nightclub. She has teamed up with Rex Donaldson, a fellow undercover operative and former sergeant-at-arms with the Devil’s Guardians bike gang.

Meanwhile, Lexie’s boyfriend, Josh, has been brought in to join the drug task force working up north around the Byron Bay area. The team is on the scent of a major marijuana bust with the belief that their prey has links back to a major player in Sydney. (Any guesses as to who the major player might be?!?)

To add to the intrigue and the tension in which Lexie has been placed, two significant flies are thrust into the ointment. First, Rex Donaldson has learned that there’s a $200,000 bounty on his head and he has to disappear for a time. This leaves Lexie without her mentor/protector. Second, part of her undercover persona requires a boyfriend and the person to act as her boyfriend happens to be a police officer known as Batman…the man whose advances she spurned in favour of Josh. Awkward in the extreme.

The story features quite the array of unlikable bad guys, some of whom are supposed to be good guys. There’s also a couple of ongoing storylines that have been brought through from both Sinister Intent (book 1) and Deadly Obsession (book 2). Both of these storylines are just begging for some kind of resolution. 

My dislike of unbelievable coincidences and improbable connections between characters was again tweaked. It caused a faint rumbling of disappointment in the pit of my stomach, particularly when Batman showed up - I actually swore out loud at that point (bit embarrassing actually because I was running at the time, listening to it on audiobook).

From a slow and rather careful build up all of the separate subplots (four of them) come together to provide a cataclysmic finale that somehow pushed through the chaos to bring about a reasonable resolution. I felt the final showdown was a little predictable as were the big twist reveals. Perhaps this came from reading all 3 books in a row - I was ready for them.