Deadlocked (Lou Mason #4) by Joel Goodman.

From Goodreads:

Ryan Kowalczyk denied slaughtering a young couple even after his best friend turned against him, sending him to death row. When Lou Mason is hired to prove Ryan’s innocence, a killer does whatever it takes to stop Mason. The deeper Mason probes, the greater the danger – until the past and present collide in an explosion of deceit, corruption and murder.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This starts off as a seemingly run of the mill legal/murder story in very much the same vein as the first three in the series and many other similar books. The story seems to struggle to get a focus and Lou’s life and case seems even more chaotic than normal.

Then, about halfway through the book BOOM! everything changes. The whole story is turned on its head with a sudden change of direction and really develops pace. Then just towards the end it takes one last twist that comes out of nowhere.

A very enjoyable book and one that I read the last half in about half the time of the first.