Review: Knife in the Back by Karen Rose

 

Knife in the Back (New Orleans #4) by Karen Rose

Publication Date: August 12th 2025 by Berkley

Pages: 528

Source: Publisher 

Rating: ★★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Libro.fm | Audible | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Officer Naomi Cranston was falsely convicted of stealing drugs from evidence and didn’t fight it because a dirty cop, John Gaffney, threated her son if she fought for her innocence. She spent five years in prison before being freed on a technicality.

 

Now Naomi is trying to move on and rebuild her relationship with her son when she’s threatened again by Gaffney. Deliver drugs or he’ll deliver her son to her in pieces. Naomi is done listening to him. Staying quiet didn’t help her, so she hires Burke Broussard, a PI, and his team to protect her son and help prove her innocence.

 

Burke used to be a police detective until his captain and Gaffney made it impossible to stay clean and continue on in the force. He got out and started his private investigation/protection business.

 

Taking on Naomi’s case quickly turns dangerous for all involved and Burke and the gang are left scrambling to protect all their loved ones as the bad guys come out in full force against them. It was intense! I loved how they were smart and careful, and kept a step ahead. In all of this they keep at the investigation, trying to figure out why Naomi was targeted in the first place and who all was involved in the frame up. Naomi proves to be an asset with her quick and sharp mind!

 

Knife in the Back was an action-packed thrill ride! The identity of the dirty cop was from the beginning, but the big mystery was who was the mastermind behind it all? I was surprised when evidence began pointing in a certain direction!  

This is book four in the New Orleans series. Each book has its own mystery and romantic couple, but the ongoing story of police corruption in the New Orleans department has been playing out since the first book with the good guys slowly rooting out the bad. In a pinch you could read this as a standalone, but I recommend starting with book one: Quarter to Midnight.

5 Stars

Book Description:

Officer Naomi Cranston was framed for stealing cocaine from the evidence locker and coerced—through threats to her young son—into not fighting the charges. After five years in prison, she has tried to put the ordeal behind her, but the crooks who framed her have returned, this time demanding she move drugs along with her flower shop’s deliveries. They threaten her son once again, but this time she’s not capitulating quietly. She hires Broussard Investigations to protect her and her son, to prove her innocence, and to put the real bad guys away.

As a former cop, Burke Broussard is well aware of the corruption in the New Orleans police department. He had always believed Naomi Cranston to be guilty and isn’t inclined to take her case. Until he sits down to listen to her side of things. Until he sees her tortured innocence written all over her beautiful face…

A relationship born amid an investigation is a fragile thing. Will it survive the danger and the threats? Will it survive the truth?

About the Author

Karen Rose is the award-winning, #1 international bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including the bestselling Baltimore and Cincinnati series. She has been translated into twenty-three languages, and her books have placed on the New York Times, the Sunday Times (UK), and Germany's der Spiegel bestseller lists.