Customer Reviews

The Lost Sheep (Colton Parker Mystery Series, Book 4)

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Brandt Dodson's "The Lost Sheep" follows Private Investigator Colton Parker as he tries to build his agency, bolster his finances, and most importantly, forge a relationship with his daughter Cassie while both are still grieving the death of his wife. Then Cassie disappears, and Colton is tempted to step over a line he's crossed in the past with disasterous results.

In his quest to find Cassie, Colton travels to Las Vegas where he slips deep into that city's seamy underbelly of prostitution. Dodson's style is sparse and a welcome masucline voice in the mystery genre of inspirational fiction. Colton reminds me a little of Robert Parker's Jesse Stone, only without the booze. Colton has his own vices--a tendency to get rough with the suspects and a lingering disregard for the rules. Somehow his fallibility makes him all the more likeable.

I find myself rooting for Colton Parker for a couple of reasons. He wants to do the right thing, but sometimes he just can't. The ends tend to justify the means for him. Like the rest of us, he has his flaws, but ultimately, at the core, he is a good man who faces his demons and finds redemption is possible. That gives the rest of us hope.

Colton's knock-down-drag-out fight with evil will keep you sitting on the edge of your chair, turning the pages long after you should've flipped the switch and crawled under the covers.

Brandt Dodson's fourth mystery follows the trend of using a biblical reference for a title. Although this one seems a bit clunky, it is suited perfectly to the story of Colton Parker, former FBI agent, as his search for his missing fifteen-year-old daughter leads him to Las Vegas.

Colton is one of the best current characters in mystery fiction, mixing the old-school traits of a Dashiell Hammett private eye with the modern sensibilities of a Jonathan Kellerman. His frantic attempts to locate his daughter drag him into the seedy underground dealings of Sin City. Colton pursues his cause with the help of a likable sidekick named Marty, and their personal investigation starts to draw lots of dangerous attention. Soon, Colton and Marty are in deep trouble as they unmask a ring of shady businesses overseen by a man with cul tish charisma.

"The Lost Sheep" has a few surprises along the way, but the story's real strength is found in Colton's weakness. He is a father obsessed with his daughter's safety--understandably so!--and cannot keep himself from fighting on the same terms as his enemies. This pushes him into constant conflict with local authorities. It also stays true to his character from throughout the series, providing some of the best, hardest hitting, Christian fiction out there.

Colton pulls no punches. Neither does Brandt Dodson. With respect for his audience, Dodson manages to make things remarkably gritty. He writes with snappy dialogue, cynicism, and a minimalistic approach to emotion that works. Whether this is the last of the series or not, the Colton Parker mysteries will stand as some of the best ever in this market.

The Lost Sheep by Brandt Dodson is the fourth book in his Colton Parker Mystery Series and the first Brandt Dodson book I've had the pleasure of reading. The book starts fast and builds speed along the way as private detective Colton Parker searches for his fifteen-year-old runaway daughter Callie. Though Callie leaves Parker a message not to look for her, Parker sees it as a plea to chase after her and he won't rest until he brings her home.

Fearing that his daughter has become involved with prostitution, Parker follows his leads, journeys to Las Vegas and straight into the smarmy underworld of prostitution and the occult. Following clue after clue and with the help of a former brothel owner Marty and his girlfriend, FBI agent Mary Christopher, Parker takes the reader on a realistic journey through the side of Las Vegas that we seldom see or want to acknowledge.

Colton Parker, an ex cop with a hard-edged view of life, on the surface fits all the old stereotypes of a gumshoe. Unlike these stereotypes, Dodson gives Parker added dimension bringing out his struggle between doing the right and often legal thing or bringing his daughter home. As a reader, we can identify with this struggle, with his love for his daughter and we cheer for Parker even when he makes a bad choice.

But Dodson doesn't stop here. He powerfully weaves a spiritual thread through the Las Vegas scenes, showing Parker how God never leaves The Lost Sheep. Though Vegas is an incredibly odd place to find such a thread, the setting makes the message so real, so practical to every person living, that Dodson successfully brings the message of salvation to everyone.

As I said, this is my first Brandt Dodson novel. Don't know how I missed them in the past. I certainly won't in the future. My only regret is that I didn't start with the first novel in the series and work my way through them in chronological order. But even this won't stop me from going back and enjoying the others. I hope we see many more Colton Parker novels in the future.

The fourth installment in Brandt Dodson's Colton Parker Mysteries, The Lost Sheep is a fantastic read. I don't usually like gritty PI type stories. The bleakness can wear me down. But there is something about the characters that Brandt crafts that propels me through stories that do nothing to hide the ugly side of life while reflecting enough light to keep the darkness from being overwhelming.

In The Lost Sheep, Colton Parker's 15-year old daughter runs away and leaves only a voicemail for her father. In it she tells him not to look for her and nothing else. From that moment he is desperate to find her before something awful happens to her.

From the back cover copy, I thought the story would start slowly with everything right in Colton's world. And after book three, I thought he'd deserved a moment to breathe. However, Brandt must follow Donald Maas' exhortation to torture his characters, because from page one the story raced to the ending. I started it at midnight, thinking I'd just read a chapter, and forty minutes later forced myself to put it down and turn off the light. Each time I picked it up it took incredible effort to put the book back down. The pacing of the plot is tight with short chapters that propel you through the story with the promise of "just one more."

This book is fantastic, and I can't wait to read this author's next book. He's a talent in this genre

Brandt Dodson, author of Original Sin, Seventy-Times Seven, and Root of All Evil returns hard-bitten P.I. Colton Parker to the fray with his latest mystery-du-jour, The Lost Sheep. Continuing to craft an entertaining gumshoe series, mixing elements of faith, redemption, and self-forgiveness with suspense, excitement, and classic pavement pounding P.I. action, The Lost Sheep takes Colton Parker and readers down a deep, twisting rabbit hole that eventually leads to the light, but only after plunging to the depths of darkness first.

As The Lost Sheep opens, Colton Parker is frantic, beside himself with worry - and impatient over the seeming ineptitude of Indianapolis Police Force - because his daughter Callie has run away, leaving nothing behind but a fearful message on their answering machine that says:

"Daddy, please don't try to find me. Please."

Things had been looking up lately for Colton and Callie; old wounds from their mother's untimely death and their estrangement had started to heal, business was picking up, they were more financially stable, and Colton had just begun to acknowledge and accept his developing feelings for former FBI partner and dear friend, Mary Christopher. Callie's sudden disappearance throws everything into a tailspin; however, as he hunts with dread heart and angry vengeance whoever has abducted his little girl.

Dark, disturbing evidence leads to Las Vegas - Sin City - and a disturbing world of pornography, prostitution, and drugs. Colton pushes doggedly on despite the forces aligning against him, but in order to save both Callie and himself, he must finally lay aside his gun and anger, and win the true battle within.

Once again, Dodson churns out another enjoyable mystery; Colton Parker is ever believable in his pain, struggling steps toward maturity, and lingering "Dirty Harry" panache. Think Mel Gibson from "Payback", with a message of redemption and growth, and you've got Colton Parker. Also, though Colton opens some doors spiritually in this novel, it's unlikely this hard-knuckled P.I. will become soft and "kissy-kissy" in future novels. Dodson has lots of room for character development, which is great: because that means lots more Colton Parker to come.

The Lost Sheep by Brandt Dodson is the fourth installment in the Colton Parker Mysteries series.

Private detective Colton Parker is still smarting from the pain of his wife's death. He is also vaguely conscious of the toll that it has taken on his daughter Callie. But nothing prepares him for the shock of arriving home from work to find a dramatic phone message from Callie: `Daddy, please don't try to find me. Please.'

Parker throws himself into an investigation that is highly personal and fraught with danger. Desperately tracing the slimmest of leads, he gradually begins to build a picture of Callie's possible whereabouts and of the people she has begun to associate with. It is a grim process, and it leads Parker into a world of vice and occultism that becomes more threatening and dark, the closer he gets to its core. Enlisting the assistance of a former pimp who now works to rescue girls from entanglement in prostitution, he gradually penetrates a web of deep darkness that he soon realizes has a potency beyond the natural realm, and far beyond what he can handle. Forced to face his own spiritual weakness and inadequacy, Parker's cynicism about the reality of God begins to erode. The story dramatically--if rather abruptly--concludes in a violent and emotional confrontation with the man who has entrapped his daughter.

This is an action-packed, fast-moving thriller written from Colton Parker's viewpoint, and very much mirrors in its style his restless, tormented mind. Woven into the plot is Parker's developing relationship with FBI agent Mary Christopher as well as his own journey of personal and spiritual self-awareness. The subterranean world of vice that is unveiled in the story is harrowing, and at times a little too sordid for comfort in a Christian fiction novel. In general the characters are well portrayed, particularly Mary and Marty, although the macho attitude of Parker himself is occasionally a little unrealistic.

The Lost Sheep is not without its literary weaknesses; however, the plot is well developed and is full of drama.

Armchair Interview says: Overall, this is an exciting read.

What would really make a tough father pissed-off? Maybe someone messing with his daughter. That's how the story begins that gives a clue to the action to follow. It seems Dodson decided to put more action in this installment of the Colton Parker series. He is like the "death angel" as people he meets end up going to their final reward.

Suppose you were slashed five times with a switch-blade, then plummeted four times against the wall by a three hundred pound giant who then proceeds to kick you in the ribs three times. You have two black eyes and a broken nose. How are your ribs? No problem. Oh, and your head is still spinning from a head-butt on the giant. What next? Drive a car at high speed into a building and crawl out through tear gas and get shot two times. Just another day's work.

No kidding, a real good story Mr. Dodson and most of us should know it takes Divine help to make it through the tough battles.

Liam Neeson did the take on the movie Taken: daughter gets kidnapped and has to find her at any cost. A friend saw another movie with the same premise. So, now I know that the premise isn't original, not by a long shot. Yet that doesn't make Brandt shy away from doing something different anyway. With his daughter kidnapped and (barely) finding out who did it and where they are (time for Sin City!), things get... weird. His usual antagonism toward religion takes a halt to challenging new info on how the world works, especially meeting people who see things in a Christian perspective, yet keep a ground-to-Earth worldview at the same time and find out devastating pasts about everyone. Not only that, but this adventure takes a new, darker edge with Brandt. Though there's no promise for a fifth mystery, I am hoping there will be one.

I LOVE these books!!!! I can't put them down! I ordered all four of them and have read the first three in 4 days time... just started book 4 - The Lost Sheep - this morning. They are all GREAT!!! Colton Parker is the type of character you can really believe in - he is human to the core and struggling to find God in his life after losing his wife - who was a Christian. Wonderful read!!

Brandt Dodson wove an action-packed real life story about a troubled teen and desperate father. The mystery unravels page by page and keeps you turning pages to find out what is next.

. . . When Colton Parker, PI, thought his life would settle down after the closing of his most recent big case, he never imagined the phone message he'd receive. His daughter Callie left a message telling him not to try and find her. Despite the words on the message, he knew in his heart she wanted him to find her. And he knew he would spend his last breath in the search if he necessary.
Thus began his journey from Indianapolis to Las Vegas. However, his search for Callie took him beyond the lights and excitement of the city into the side streets, alleys, and darkness of humanity. Colton found his history in police work and expertise in private investigation was not enough to find his lost daughter. As he came in contact with cult, witchcraft and voodoo he found himself in the middle of a spiritual battle. The spiritual conflict meant life or death for both himself and his daughter . . .

This book is a page-turner. It truthfully and faithfully tells a story of father's love, daughter's response to loss and the Savior's guidance and protection. It was my first Brandt Dodson book and I can guarantee you it will not be my last.