This was such a great story. It’s book 9 but I haven’t read the first 8 books and had no trouble following. I will definitely be going back to read the others. This book has so many twists and turns. I loved following along and trying to figure out the clues. It left me with a major book hangover. I received an advance review copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

KIND OF A LOT GOING ON HERE!! We have a murder, a romance, a new baby, revenge, two police partners, another murder, a GEEK MONKEEWRENCH Intelligent Company and even more murders. Oh yeah and a BOMB! This is my first read in this series and now I need to make time to read the prior eight. Great characters by this author along with a thickening plot! "A copy of this book was provided by Crooked Lane Books via Netgalley with no requirements for a review. Comments here are my honest opinion."

I started reading it and I was turned off at the writing style in the beginning, I couldn't really continue after that unfortunately. Not for me.

Competent thriller with well written characters. I read the 1st book in the Monkeewrench series a while ago and enjoyed it. I had not read another until now. Makes me want to read the series from the start.

This was a great story, lots of suspense and intrigue. Monkey wrench were at the top of their game. Even very pregnant Grace! Loved this more than the last one! More about monkey wrench, last one was lacking there. I love this series, all of them!

This is my 9th monkey wrench book to read. Grace and her group of misfits keep my interest and I enjoy following their private lives in addition to the mystery the detectives are solving with the monkey wrench groups assistance. This book does not fail to entertain.

I love this series and start counting down to each release date. The Guilty Dead was Brilliant and a fitting addition to the series.
A multitude of characters, a well written storyline and captivating climax. This was an edge of my seat thriller and definitely worth the read. The Guilty Dead will be making its way to my favorite list and where I can enjoy it over and over again

This is my first book both by this author and although it is the 9th instalment in the series, it is my first. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, I love this type of genre and I’m grateful to have found another series to sink my teeth into. Loved the story line which was fast paced and well written with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing right to the end. Would definitely recommend to those who love a good murder mystery series!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

If you like quick, easy reads with good suspense and a good story, I would definitely check out the Monkeewrench series. This is the 9th book and you definitely need to have read the previous books to really get the story and appreciate the characters. My only issue with this book was there wasn't enough of the Monkeewrench team - it was focused on Leo and Gino and the case they were investigating.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This instalment seemed to take a long time to get going, although once it did the police investigation/Norwood storyline was engrossing. The Monkeywrench thread concerning terrorism was troubling to me. I couldn’t really grasp exactly what their software was meant to be trying to achieve, nor what raw data it was using, and I had issues with the idea that the private, morally righteous, Monkeywrench team were more to be trusted with civil liberties than the FBI. Also, does ISIS really have access to oil money? There didn’t seem to be any compelling reason for Dahl to wake Harley up in the middle of the night to say that he thought the FBI needed help surveilling vast sections of the US population.

As for the Norwood plot line, who exactly attacked and then who later murdered Clara? Was this explained? Why was Rosalie’s home broken into? Why did Gus have two different people making bombs for him? There could have been a bit more tying in of loose ends.

Not my favourite by a long way.

When prominent Minnesota philanthropist Gregory Norwood is found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound on the anniversary of his only son’s death from a drug overdose, the community is shocked. Minneapolis detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolspeth believe the crime-scene evidence points to murder, though, and open an investigation into who would want to kill the popular Norwood, who was a good friend of both Police Chief Malcherson and attorney Robert Zeller, the leading candidate to be the next governor of Minnesota. Meanwhile FBI Special Agent Dahl calls Harley Davidson, of the Monkeewrench crew, a small tech firm of skilled misfits who have turned their software talents to helping law enforcement on a number of occasions, sometimes navigating the murky water between legal and illegal. Dahl asks Harley if Monkeewrench might be able to provide some tools to help sort through masses of data indicating the possibility of terrorist threats, with the focus on threats in Minneapolis. Two very different investigations. Or are they?
The Guilty Dead continues the Monkeewrench series’ high standard for character and plot. The characters feel and react like real people, whether it is Magozzi anticipating the birth of his first child or Gino complaining about the Minnesota weather: “The one thing Gino hated more than cold and snow was heat and humidity. That left his touchy constitution with one or two comfortable months out of the year when he had to find something else to complain about.” With the exception of expectant-mother Grace (and, of course, Charlie the dog), the Monkeewrench gang is not onstage very much (although their tech is key to solving the crime). The plot is complicated, with lots of apparently unrelated threads, and there was more than one time that I thought to myself, “That’s a flaw. Makes no sense.” But by the end of the book, it did, and the denouement ties up all the ends neatly and credibly.
Good entertainment it is, but not everything in the book is so credible. The reader must be prepared to accept at face value the Monkeewrench gang’s genius at being able to provide from their 4-person office software tools superior to anything available to either state or federal sources. And I certainly hope FBI agents do not casually hand flash drives on which “everything is classified at the highest level” to an uncleared person in a non-secure setting, telling him to get rid of the flash drive as soon as he loads the contents into his own computer.
If you are new to the Monkeewrench series, you can enjoy The Guilty Dead with pleasure and without spoiling the earlier instalments. However, readers of the early books should be prepared for some changes. I fell in love with the humor and the genial tone of Monkeewrench series when I read book 1, Monkeewrench, and book 2, Live Bait, was just as good. The Guilty Dead was my first P. J. Tracy since Live Bait, and it is a first-rate police procedural, but the atmosphere is a good bit darker. As an example, Monkeewrench begins with a nun cooking a midwestern casserole for the parish priest. Guilty Dead opens with the bad guy killing a drug addict by giving him an overdose and taking away his NARCAN. There is still a bit of humor, especially in the interplay between Magozzi and Gino, but not nearly as much as in the earlier books.
Even though there are fewer smiles to be had, there are lots of challenges for the reader and for detectives Magozzi and Rolseth and the Monkeewrench gang. And I am sure there will be new challenges we can enjoy reading about in the future.
A worthy addition to the series

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In this 9th book, a prominent Milwaukee businessman has apparently taken his own life and the Monkeewrench team is working on a computer algorithm to track terrorist threats. But, nothing is as it seems and the two apparently unrelated events come together with unexpected and frightening results.

Love this series. Well-written with lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing till the end.

you cant beat a monkeewrench story, the gang are back with my two favourite detectives, i love this series, its like watching a film play out in your mind.

This book was confusing to say the least. It starts out with a top politician being found dead in his home. It looks like a suicide but all the evidence leads to a homicide. Enter police officers Magozzi and Rolseth. They are on the case investigating everyone from the deceased's family members to acquaintances who may have been seen in the area during the time of death. Then another body is found. It is that of a paparazzi hired by a local paper to do some research on Norwood. His bag is found in one place and his body in another. This is where it gets confusing. Magozzi enlists his pregnant girlfriend, Grace, and her coworkers at Monkeewrench to help with the case. This opens up a lot of back and forth dialogue between all of the characters who are finding more and more "suspects". From deliverymen to the deceased's top advisor to drug dealers, I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. The storyline itself was good as were the characters. There were just too many of them.

Thank you to Netgalley, P.J. Tracy, and Crooked Lane Books for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Excellent! A fast-paced, can't put down mystery. I look forward to the next one in the series.
Thank you #netgalley and #crookedlanebooks for the eARC.

Grace MacBride is pregnant and days from delivery. Leo Magozzi is walking on air. But when Gregory Norwood is murdered, Leo and his partner, Gino Rolseth, catch the case. It would be so much easier for Norwood to have committed suicide, but when another dead body shows up a local state park, that is tied to the Norwood case, it is apparent there is more going on than meets the eye. Gregory Norwood's son, Trey, overdosed a year ago. Or, did he? And how is this all connected to the murder of a 14-year-old girl in Aspen ten years ago? And the Monkeewrench Crew has uncovered evidence that a terror attack will take place in Minneapolis; the FBI is worried. There is an adrenaline-fueled race to find the murderer and uncover the terror plot before anyone else gets murdered or Minneapolis blows up. I am so glad to see the Crew back in the saddle. After the death of Patricia Lambrecht in 2016, I was afraid we would not see them again. Her daughter, Traci, hopefully, will continue the series.

The Guilty Dead is the latest installment in the Monkeewrench series by P.J. Tracy. This book features more of the police procedural aspect and less of the Monkeewrench crew, which normally would be a negative, but this is a really well developed plot and I don't mind it at all. If you're fans of Harley, Grace, Annie and Roadrunner, don't worry, they're in there, but this really focuses on Gino and Magozzi unraveling a case that goes back years and uncovers family secrets. It's extremely well written and even if I thought I knew who did it, i didn't know why, or how. And of course, I was only half-right anyway, the plot twists make sense and pull it all together.

Probably one of the best books in this series. Some intriguing developments by Monkeewrench that hopefully are being developed somewhere. The story of Grace's pregnancy., the evolution of her relationship with Leo and the remainder of the crew mesh seamlessly. Plenty of drama and confusion with a stumper of a murder case. For all her current fans and anyone who is a suspense fan.

This series just gets better and better with each outing! I love how these characters have grown and evolved over time. This story grabbed me from the start and held me all the way to the end. One half of this writing team (the mother) passed away two years ago and the writing has still held steady with all the craziness and complexity of these very nerdy protagonists. This time around they unravel a murder staged to look like a suicide that has some very far reaching implications. This is the 9th book in the series but even if you haven’t read any of the others you will not be lost. A really outstanding mystery!

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an advanced copy of P.J. Tracy’s #9 in the Monkeysrench series. Every time I thought I knew “who done it” I was wrong. And the twist in the end as to how they got caught was brilliant!! With the loss of half of this writing duo I was hoping the series would continue.