Loving this series! Kovac and Liska . . DUST TO DUST, (Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska Book 2), full of humor and wit between this dynamic duo, mixed with some of the best- for a complex crime thriller with dark secrets for a powerful whodunit. Gay cop killed making it appear to be a suicide, corruption, and dirty cops. Who is behind all the killings? One of their own, perhaps? I started with Hoag's latest COLD COLD HEART (a 5-star winner which won me over), and now catching up with all the previou...

06/28/2013 - Did not finish04/12/2022 - I DNFed this book nine years ago. I love Tami Hoag and I wanted to give this series another chance. I came really close to DNFing it again, but I persevered and the last 30% was well worth the effort. Even though I guessed the baddie and the motivation, there were still a few surprises in store. The whole book was overlong, and the narrative could have been trimmed about 100 pages or more. I have not had this compliant about Tami Hoag before and hope never...

Another thrilling novel from Tami! She leaves you feeling confused, sad, and relieved all at the same time. There were so many twists and turns it was hard to keep up and none of it made sense till the end. What a perfect thriller.

I like Tami Hoag's writing style and I liked her book, The 9th Girl, but this addition to her series only scored a 3 1/2 stars for me. The story was pretty good and the characters were believable, but parts just felt forced or added for fill. In my opinion not her best.

Suicide or murder? That is the question when an internal affairs investigator is found hanging in his home. The case gets more interesting when Detectives Kovac and Liska find out the investigator was gay and looking into the death of another gay officer. Although Kovac and LIska are told to close the case as a suicide they continue to investigate and end up uncovering more than they bargained for. There is so much going on throughout this book that it makes it very interesting and intense. Kova...

I would give this book 3 and 1/2 stars if I could- I expected the returning characters from Ashes to Ashes to be John and Anne, but this second book in the series focuses more on Liska and Kovac. I was pleased though that the author did give a cameo appearance to Quinn and Anne, enough to update the reader about their ongoing lives- Like getting a christmas family update from friends. :) This book delivers all of the same plot twists and twisted minds as the first book, but fell short on the cre...

Having just finished a "literary" suspenser, which involved battling my way through a jungle of overconvoluted prose, I was desperate to cleanse my palate, as it were, with a piece of straightforward storytelling. This book by Tami Hoag practically leapt from the shelf into my hand as the ideal restorative.When the cop son of a disabled legendary ex-cop is found hanged, everyone's keen to assume it's a matter of suicide -- everyone, that is, except Hoag's series heroes, detectives Sam Kovac and

I really have a love-hate relationship with these books. I love Kovac and Liska, I love their banter, I love the gallows humor and the snarking among the cops. It all feels very raw and real, and matches the cops and investigators I know. On the other hand, just like Prior Bad Acts, the plot is overly convoluted and has too many moving parts. After I finished it I actually had to go back over the story in my head to make sure I understand who did what when, and why. I also thought some of the "t...

Another book that rambles and is way too long. The story of a gay police officer's death ruled a suicide, then accidental, and then another death ruled suicide. These rulings don't sit well with the two detectives Kovac and Liska. A lot of the same old same old - cops who break the rules, get themselves threatened by bad guys, and on and on. Another way way too long book (almost 500 pages) and audiobook. This is a clue for me to avoid non-literary fiction books that are over 300 pages unless I r...

I listened to this on four cassettes to and fro my work over the last few days, and I must say, this was quite a bit better than 'Ashes to Ashes.' The characters of Detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska return - Nikki was definitely a high point of 'Ashes to Ashes,' - and get hit by a pair of very confusing deaths. One, a "cold-case" of the beating-death of a cop, and the other, an apparent suicide of an IA cop. But is it suicide? Is the criminal charged in the cold-case beating death really the

Another good mystery for Kovac and Liska. Both Kovac and Liska are solid characters and I really enjoyed this one. I did figure out the "bad guys", but the journey to their guilt was solid. I liked how the past and present crimes were woven together. There were a couple of sad items, but...One item that I don't enjoy is the present tense sections by the one "bad guy". I know this is Ms. Hoag's style, but I tended to skim these short sections. For whatever reason, present tense is like nails on a...

This was #2 in the Kovak-Liska series, so I understand it not being a good sequel. However, it was one of the slowest, most ploddingly dull storylines I've read in quite a while. If I hadn't already read #5 in this series, I wouldn't have finished this book. This wasn't just a boring story but it was morose and depressing. Not something I'd suggest as a must read.

Quick review:Cover: Fitting Rating: R Thumbs Up: 4Overall: A good novelCharacters: Well WrittenPlot: Sometimes hate is more directed inwardPage Turner: Yes Series Cont.? Yes Recommend: YesBook Boyfriend: SamSUMMARY (50 words or less)This is my second book by this author. It was an audible daily deal, thus I pick it up out of order. However, the book stood on its own with no probably. Despite I thought some clues were obvious, it was still an interesting read.For a full review and yummy pic, s...

Another great read by Tami Hoag. I am really enjoying this series by her. And I look forward to the next one in this series, Prior Bad Acts and also the other series that she has. I love how she writes. Pretty fluid and easy to read, lots of mystery and excitement and great plots to follow. I like how parts of the last book rolled over into this one giving hints to past lives. So probably better to read them in order.I think the characters are very well developed, very realistic and believable.

I listened to this in the car on CD. Good plot, but the prose is really turgid.

Though I know that Hoag has "Ashes to Ashes" as the first Kovac and Liska book. I always thought "Dust to Dust" was the first book in the series. Mainly because we get Kovac and Liska's third person POVs in this one and the last book really focused on John Quinn and Kate Conlan. "Dust to Dust' has Kovac and Liska investigated the death of an IAB officer with ties to a legendary police officer. Though ruled a suicide, both Kovac and Liska believe the officer was murdered. There are ties to an old...

Good!! Brought the last cd into the house to finish it up. Couldn't wait thru the weekend till Monday when I'd be back in the car driving. This is my first Kovac/Liska novel, and I'd now like to read more. I thought that I had the story all figured out but I was a little incorrect. Didn't find this out til the very ending of the book. Hope the library has more Hoag audios.

I just couldn't deal with this one. I'm not sure what it was. The suspense was good and the book was rather entertaining, but something about this book felt darker - in a more depressing, morose way than the books she usually writes. In one respect, I appreciate that Kovac and Liska have as much depth as they do, but I cannot really appreciate their characters. They're just not the kind of characters I want to read about. I'm not sure I'll be continuing this particular series.*****Re-read Edited...

Talk about a slow burner. I normally like slow paced mysteries, but in this case the “slowness” became exasperating; it actually got to the point where I started to doubt if the suicide that the story was centered on was really just a suicide because nothing seemed to happen to advance the plot and actually guarantee an homicide investigation (as promised by this kind of stories). This was my main issue with the novel, how it seemed to have too much filler and little plot. Yes, we got to meet en...

3.5 stars This is an older book by Hoag (pub. 2000) that I found in my personal library. I didn’t think I’d read it so I gave it a go. I think I read the prequel to this one, Ashes to Ashes, back 20 yrs ago, as a couple of references to characters from that first one sounded familiar to me. This is the 2nd in this series featuring homicide detectives Sam Kovac and his partner Nikki Liska. It is not necessary to read Ashes to Ashes first, as this can stand alone. This one starts our slow, no big