🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 5/5 | Steam: 🔥

⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Double Play yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.

The Opening

Jack is in Ireland wrapping up old business so he can retire and settle down with Nadia. Nadia is at the lodge waiting for his daily phone call. He misses it. That is very unlike Jack. And then a man from Contrepasso shows up at her door telling her Quinn is missing. Book four is a race across two countries and it does not slow down.

The Full Story — Spoilers Included

Two Timelines, Two Continents

Jack is in Ireland meeting an old associate named Killian, who rescheduled their meeting at the last minute. Jack scopes the location before going in, spots a man Killian nods to in the alley, disarms him, and sends him on his way. He sits down across from Killian in disguise and tosses a pill on the table, telling him it’s cyanide with three choices: take it, get shot under the table, or talk. It’s actually just an allergy pill. Jack is thorough.

Killian admits that nobody is trying to kill Jack. They want him for a job. The plan was to take Quinn first because he’s easier to get to, so they can then get to Nadia, then use Quinn and Nadia as leverage to force Jack to take the job. Once they have Nadia secured, they’ll tell Jack what the job actually is. Angry, Jack tells Killian to take the pill. Slow release cyanide, he says. If Killian talks, he gets the antidote. Then he shoves him into a building, breaks his kneecap, gets a little more information, and leaves him there.

Meanwhile in Canada, Diaz from Contrepasso has shown up at the lodge telling Nadia that Quinn is missing. She decides she needs to help find Quinn and goes with Diaz. The more time she has to think while she’s away the more she clocks that something is wrong. The job Quinn went on seemed specifically tailored for him, which in hindsight is a red flag. She needs to get home. Diaz keeps manufacturing reasons to delay her and offers to drive. She declines and takes off, noticing a vehicle following her without its tail lights on.

Evelyn calls, dropping hints without actually dropping them. She is coming to help. Nadia tells her not to bother. Evelyn says she is coming anyway.

Into the Woods

The vehicle following Nadia closes in fast. She swerves into a ditch and runs into the woods. She climbs up into a hunting blind in the trees. One of the men tracking her spots her. They shoot at her. She falls out of the tree, hits her head, and hurts herself badly.

Diaz appears and shoots the man coming after her. He tells her what he knows: the plane ticket supposedly used by Quinn to come see her was purchased from Mexico using a card Quinn no longer uses. The ticket was designed to draw Nadia out so they could tail her, since they didn’t actually know how to find her directly. Diaz was trying to figure out what was happening but wasn’t part of the kidnapping plan.

Then a man with a shotgun steps out from behind a tree. He shoots Diaz. Nadia shoots the shooter — but not quickly enough. The man shoots Diaz in the head.

Nadia hides in a thick cluster of trees, likely concussed and losing blood.

Evelyn reaches her by phone. Nadia is barely coherent. Evelyn shows up at Jack’s hotel room and tells him she thinks she spoke to Nadia but she was barely able to speak and was clearly hurt.

Jack Comes

Someone calls Killian’s phone, which Jack has taken. They tell him they have Nadia — which isn’t true yet — and that Jack should be ready to receive the job details in two hours. Jack gets Felix to unlock the GPS on Nadia’s phone and tracks it to the forest. He and his team find men there searching for her. They kill two and catch the third, who knows nothing useful. He was a hired hand. They kill him.

They’re about to leave when men in suits show up. Contrepasso. There’s a standoff. Evelyn calls Contrepasso directly and negotiates a trade: information for their men.

Then Jack hears Nadia. She’s okay.

Killian’s Plan

Killian gets free and calls Jack, claiming he wants to help and has a contact who can give them information. He provides an address. Jack suspects a trap but goes anyway because it’s the best lead they have.

The address leads to a commercial building under construction — where they believe Quinn is being held. Nadia goes in through the roof, scanning the building. She keeps getting strange readings on her heat scanner and notices signs of renovation that don’t add up: wood with no sawdust, paint with no fumes.

She finds Quinn. He tells her to stay away from the door. It’s rigged with explosives on the other side. Enough to level the entire building.

On Jack’s end, the contact makes him completely disarm in the dark. After he’s disarmed, the accent changes. A lamp comes on. It’s Killian. Jack had already suspected this and plays surprised. Killian is furious at Jack for walking away years ago, for working with Evelyn instead of staying loyal, for not acknowledging what Killian believes he did for Jack’s career. He has been waiting years for Jack to repay a debt that Jack considers long settled. His plan is to blow up Nadia as payment for what he sees as Jack’s betrayal.

Jack plays it cool and pretends he doesn’t care about Nadia that much. Killian doesn’t believe it. He sets the detonator off. Jack dives for him. Killian laughs. The bomb goes off.

Evelyn had warned Nadia in time. She doesn’t want to leave without Quinn but Quinn shoves her out of the room.

Getting Out

Jack races to the building. It hasn’t fully collapsed. He hears a pipe banging and finds Quinn. They get Quinn out and search for Nadia, who got to a safe space just before the bomb went off but is now trapped. She works to get out and runs immediately into a man who attacks her. She figures out during the fight that the fake renovation materials were part of an insurance fraud scheme. Jack hits the man over the head with a two-by-four. They get out of the building.

Their solution for Killian: point the cartel he’d been working with directly at him. He will not have a good time.

What This Book Gives Us

We get more of Jack’s history in this book than in any of the previous three combined. His connection to Killian, how he started, how he got from Ireland to becoming who he is now. For a man who communicates almost entirely through action and silence, having that context fills in something the series has been holding back, and it’s worth the wait.

Best Part of This Book

Getting more of Jack’s history. Three books of watching him operate and this one finally shows us more of where he came from and what shaped him.

Worst Part of This Book

The narrator change. The new narrator has a carefree, almost breezy quality that doesn’t suit Nadia at all. The original narrator gave her an empathetic warmth that grounded the whole series. It’s not a small thing when you’ve spent three books with one voice and it suddenly changes.

The Steam Rating Breakdown

🔥 — No romance. Jack and Nadia are together but this book is pure thriller from start to finish. Content warnings for violence, explosions, and a prolonged chase sequence.

The Ending — Satisfied or Disappointed?

Satisfied. Pointing the cartel at Killian rather than dealing with him directly is exactly the kind of solution this series favors, and it fits.

Would I Reread It?

Yes.

Who Is This For

Readers who are invested in Jack and want to finally understand more of who he is underneath everything. Anyone who loved books one through three and wants to see what happens when someone from Jack’s past tries to use Nadia to settle an old score.

Where to Get

Note: Double Play and Perfect Victim are sold together as a novella duo in print and ebook.

📖 Physical Book
Amazon | Bookshop.org (Double Play / Perfect Victim duo)

🎧 Audiobook
Audible

📱 Ebook
Amazon (Double Play / Perfect Victim duo)

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Double Play — Kelley Armstrong | A Full Spoiler Review