In Into the Garden Came a Snake follows retired Chicago Police Department Captain Michael Brinker who is pulled into an NCIS investigation when he discovers a burner phone linked to a trio of Syrians who are determined to make the U.S and the world pay attention to the genocide in their homeland. During the investigation, Michael is reunited with his college sweetheart, NCIS Special Agent Samantha Nielson, who disappeared from his life without a word almost twenty years ago. With double agents working against them, will the Naval Criminal Investigative Service be able to stop the plot targeting an unknown Navy asset?

This suspenseful police procedural is filled with action and unexpected twists. This is a story that made me form suspicions and then kept me reading to find out if I was correct or not. I enjoyed discovering new clues and trying to figure out what would happen next and how various threads all tied together. The “good guys” weren’t always good and this added a lot of uncertainty and intrigue to the story, which left me wondering who else was working against NCIS and kept me guessing whether characters would be able to redeem themselves in the end.

While I enjoyed the story, I felt that there was a lot of information to take in, along with specific details and backstory of secondary characters, yet readers are still left with burning questions such as: who was Special Agent Rebecca Daniels? Which agency did she work for? And why did she drop the burner phone where Michael would find it?

In Into the Garden Came a Snake is a thrilling crime fiction novel with riveting characters on a treacherous quest to uncover the truth. Author D.M. Karlman knows how to immerse readers in a deeply intriguing mystery and then slowly unravel it with dramatic effect.

Pages: 238