Here we are on book #10 of Allison Brennan’s series about Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) detective Lucy Kincaid, her boyfriend, her family, and her coworkers—and of course, the cases she’s assigned to. I started this series just before I left for my internship. I was amazed at how much of myself I saw in a character so unlike myself, and for that reason, Lucy helped get me through confusing times during my internship. I’ll be forever grateful to this series. Her relatability is likely why the series was such a smashing success with readers.
In this latest novel, No Good Deed, we continue with Lucy in San Antonio, Texas where she a boyfriend Sean live. They’ve recently gotten engaged, which is an exciting next step for the series. However, the focus of the novel is not Sean and Lucy. Instead, we’re still looking at a former Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent named Nicole who infiltrated the DEA for fifteen years, but was actually connected with one of the biggest drug and arms dealers in Texas named Tobias.
No Good Deed starts with Nicole being transported from the prison in which she was kept for the last three months. There is a harrowing escape plan that sees several offices killed and the lives of over twenty school children saved at the last minute. Every agency of every kind—police, FBI, DEA, etc.—are on the lookout for Nicole. Really, they all think Tobias is the mastermind behind Nicole’s elaborate escape, but Lucy is convinced that Tobias is a figurehead and Nicole is the real brains behind the entire crime syndicate.
One thing I struggled with in No Good Deeds is that the storyline is a continuation of events from the previous two novels (Dead Heat and Best Laid Plans). What that means is Brennan added characters across two novels without a good deal of reintroduction to who they are and what they do in this third novel. Sure, I should be a good fan and remember my characters, but there are so many: DEA agents, FBI San Antonio agents, FBI in Washington D.C. agents, San Antonio police officers, etc.
A subplot involves Sean’s brother Kane, a mercenary who works primarily in Mexico and South America outside of the law but typically to stop those who traffick minors. Earlier in the series, Kane was like a shadow, someone even his brother Sean couldn’t ahold of. Having emotional connections with Kane means you’re a target. These last three books, set in San Antonio, Texas, has characters crossing the border into Mexico often, meaning Kane is a bigger presence that early Kincaid novels. In fact, the seemingly invincible Kane gets into a dangerous situation for which he must be extracted, separating Lucy and Sean just when things are most dangerous for Lucy—because someone is killing any person who was involved in Operation Heatwave, a collaboration between the DEA and FBI in San Antonio to end the trafficking of drugs and children across the Mexico-USA border.
While the novel really picks up speed in the final act, I struggled with earlier chapters because we’re instantly interacting with SO MANY characters, and I couldn’t remember who was with which department. Eventually, I got them straightened out, but there’s also the challenge of the initialisms that I cannot keep straight, especially ASAC (Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge) and AUSA (Assistant United States Attorney). A few characters are incarcerated and working on deals for which they exchange information to get a lighter sentence, despite being serious criminals. Lucy fights to convince one particular individual, a clinical children’s psychologist whose patient is a minor/psychopath who committed murder in the previous novel, that she is being manipulated.
The conclusion to No Good Deed suggests we are done with this story arc with Nicole and Tobias, with the trafficking and Operation Heatwave. I guess what we got was a trilogy of sorts! I know Lucy is likely to still be in San Antonio in the next book, as we’ve been told new FBI agents are placed somewhere for two years upon graduation with little say as to where they go. Neither Sean nor Lucy have family in Texas, but they are growing used to their new house, jobs, and developing relationship. I’m excited to see what comes next.
Books of Fall 🍂🎃🍵
- Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
- Just Desserts by G.A. McKevett
- Slewfoot by Brom
- She Throws Herself Forward to Stop the Fall by Dave Newman
- Submerged by Hillel Levin
- The Unmothers by Leslie J. Anderson
- Homing by Sherrie Flick (DNF)
- The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter (DNF)
- Ask Elizabeth: Real Answers to Everything You Secretly Wanted to Ask about Love, Friends, Your Body — and Life in General by Elizabeth Berkley (DNF)
- No Good Deed by Allison Brennan (#10)
- Fat! So? by Marilyn Wann
- Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
- The West Passage by Jared Pechaček
- Quest for the Unknown: Bizarre Phenomena by Reader’s Digest
- Icebreaker by Hannah Grace
- A Life in Letters by Zora Neale Hurston
- Bitter Thirst by S.M. Reine (Preternatural Affairs #8)
- Deaf Eyes on Interpreting, edited by Thomas H. Holcomb and David H. Smith
- Compassion, Michigan by Raymond Luczak
- Syd Arthur by Ellen Frankel
Grab the Lapels 
I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Seems like you’ve found yourself a serial. I chance on books like this sometimes, chosing crime fiction from the library, and all I can do is ignore the bits I don’t understand and hope it comes together later.
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Do you mean that you accidentally (or willingly) jump into the middle of a series?
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With any series I just pick up whichever book is free at the library and work out the overall story later.
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I’m about to finish a series and then I will look for this one. Thanks!
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Ooooh, I’m so glad. I noticed recently on your blog that you review series. I haven’t seen a post from you in a while. Did something happen? I’ll try unsubscribing and resubscribing.
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Nothing happened that I know about… but if you find anything that makes it hard to see posts or comment, please let me know.
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I subscribed again, so I’ll let you know when I see a new post from you in the comments of that post.
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Once again I enjoyed your review Melanie. I love that this author helped you through your internship. And that despite the frustrations you like her writing and Lucy enough to continue. I think I would have more trouble with all the acronyms than all the characters though a lot of characters can be trying. Caledonian road which I read earlier this year was like that.
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I mean, I’m flattered that Brennan thinks I know al the government initialisms. She has a lot of faith in her readers. 😅
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Haha … and you rise to the challenge.
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Ok I could be wrong about this, but I thought Brennan wasn’t writing these books anymore, you were just revisiting the series. Or, is she still actively releasing Lucy Kincaid novels? They do sound good, but I tire of too many characters too, especially when reading for escapism…
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Brennan is super done with this series, but I came to them after they were all already published. She has other series, and she has standalone novels coming out too. By the time this book finished, all the characters that made me feel like there were way too many characters were kind of out of the picture. No spoilers lol.
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I’m glad you’re still enjoying these! The acronyms do sound confusing. I can normally cope with a lot of characters (though I think more contemporary authors ought to go the 19th century route and have a Dramatis Personae at the start), but lots of acronyms is a real bugbear for me. Since I spend half my life – approximately – reading dissertations where students have used far too many acronyms, I can’t be doing with them in fiction as well!
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Oh, no!! Actually, Nick and I were just talking about you over morning coffee. Do you still work as a nurse, or are you full-time professor? Do you want to get back into field work, or do you prefer teaching for now?
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Well, I’m still a registered nurse, and teaching & research are two of the “four pillars” of nursing, so I do still work as a nurse. There are several aspects of my job that can legally only be done by a registered nurse. I don’t do any ward work at the moment, which is what I think you mean, but I do teach some clinical skills. I wouldn’t want to go back onto a ward right now, but I would like to be doing more clinical research and am working towards that.
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Yes, ward work is what we meant! The reason we were talking about you is because there was this commercial on TV for an upcoming news story about how someone or some school somewhere is talking about turning the 4-year medical degree into a 3-year program. Basically, trying to cram it all into a shorter amount of time. I was telling Nick about how during covid you were tasked to help get nurses through the program a little bit faster because we were in such dire straits, if I remember correctly.
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Yes – during the first part of the pandemic our finalists did an accelerated programme so they could get onto the register more quickly, and I was part of the team long-arm supervising them during that process. It was a very strange time!
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On the one hand, I like when authors treat their readers as intelligent and don’t over explain things. On the other hand, it’s hard to remember so much from one book to another, especially side characters and acronyms!
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I’m guessing some things will smooth out as the villains of the book were sort of wrapped up at the end. Therefore, there won’t be a need to remember any chain of events from that perspective. I’ll still need to think about who the different agents are, whether they be FBI, police, or the drug enforcement agency. I’m still enjoying them!
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