Murder 8 (Nick Lawrence #5) by Brian Christopher Shea


Murder 8 (Nick Lawrence #5)
Title : Murder 8 (Nick Lawrence #5)
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : -
Language : English
Format Type : Kindle Edition
Number of Pages : 210
Publication : First published June 10, 2019

A powerful new drug has hit the streets of Massachusetts, and overdoses are skyrocketing to epidemic proportions.

Nick Lawrence and the Valhalla Group are tasked with taking down the distribution network, and must partner with Boston’s elite Tactical Narcotics Team to get the job done.

But as tensions between the units mount and the drug ring comes within reach, Nick begins to realize the true extent of the corruption…

MURDER 8 is a hard-hitting timely thriller encapsulating our country’s battle with opioid addiction. Shea’s experience as a former narcotics detective shines through in this bold story. You’ll get an up close and gritty look at the drug trade, but with the stylistic flare and relentless pacing of his previous works. This thriller will have you burning the midnight oil.


Murder 8 (Nick Lawrence #5) Reviews


  • Kathi Defranc

    A very good story with a great look at the opioid fight from the political side and through the drug units that battle the results daily! Full review shortly 4/17/2020 Ok just read this story again after reading the first four that come before it and what a fantastic and surprising ending to characters I have come to love reading about!!
    Nick Lawrence and the Valhalla group are working in Boston Mass, partnering with the Elite Narcotics Task Force after the overdose death of a Senator's daughter. This Senator is making a big push on his own drug campaign, hoping good results can push him toward the White House. But not everything is as it seems in this gritty depiction that puts You on the streets, seeing exactly what happens when imbibing in your drug of choice takes more than you expected- your job, friends. family and eventually, your life..
    While Nick works his investigation, the young lady he saved years ago, Mouse, has joined the Team. And she is looking for more for herself and Nick..A fitting ending of a series I have lived through with amazing characters, intriguing investigations, and plots taken from life today!!
    A 5 STAR story I recommend to you All...

  • Kindra

    Great book! Love this series and it had such a great ending

  • Gavin Reese

    “MURDER 8” by Brian Shea, released June 10, 2019, from Severn River Publishing.

    Don’t start this book at bedtime. A former narcotics detective, Shea has spun a driving, ripped-from-the-headlines story you won’t be able to put down.

    "A powerful new drug has hit the streets of Massachusetts, and overdoses are skyrocketing to epidemic proportions. Senator Buzz Litchfield’s daughter is the latest opioid death, and he wants justice. Law enforcement is told to take the gloves off and to come down hard on the rampant drug rings that have plagued the area."

    Shea’s fifth installment of the Agent Nick Lawrence series introduces readers to the myriad of personalities, motives, and perspectives involved in the dangerous underbelly of real-life narcotics sales and trafficking. He used his personal involvement in New England’s fentanyl and heroin overdose scourge to pen a frighteningly realistic portrayal of the multifaceted dilemmas facing law enforcement, the public, and grieving families left to deal with the aftermath of addiction and overdose deaths.

    The primary character, former FBI Agent Nick Lawrence, has a complicated and dark past. Despite having not read the previous four installments, Shea penned MURDER 8 so well that I didn’t feel I missed any information. He did, however, offer just enough mysterious morsels of the man’s past that I now want to go back and read through the series.

    Nick’s surrounded by a cast of characters that might be well at home on the Island of Misfit Toys, if its occupants were tactically proficient secret operatives hellbent on justice and willing to bend the rules necessary to bring the worst among us to their much-deserved justice. As with Nick, his sidekicks have just enough backstory to be relatable, visible, and three-dimensional. Where Shea didn’t offer exact details, he beautifully offered just enough information to allow the readers to fill in the gaps with their imaginations and personal experiences.

    While the story draws heavily from Shea’s incredible breadth of knowledge, training, and personal experience, he never bogged readers down with process, procedure, and trivial minutia, which is often the tendency with crime authors. His tactical background allowed him to write characters who don’t need to tell you they’re a badass, their actions and lack extraneous self-promotion demonstrate it. As a recently established author, Shea’s hitting way above his weight class. He’s a writer you’ll want to start reading now before he’s a household name.

    During my recent interview, Shea expounded on the experiences, realities, and craft study that led him to write about the overdose epidemic. Based on my own experience in that same area, I second his assertion that this is an important topic and, by extension, I offer this is an important work of reality-based-fiction that will help guide communities to meaningful civic action to aid addiction recovery and hold accountable those who deal in misery and suffering. The narcotics scenes, slang, and behaviors, I assure you, are absolutely accurate.

    Shea’s next effort, which begins a new series into Boston PD Detective Michael Kelly, “a good Irish lad,” releases sometime this fall. Keep a watchful eye out for that one.

  • Jim A



    I was asked to read an ARC and then post a review. Usually this happens with new authors. I was very surprised to be dropped into the middle of a series.

    Titled Murder 8, which is the street name given a drug, heroin and fentanyl combination, it’s the story of tracking down the sellers and distributors of this drug. A little bit of incentive for law enforcement, the original victim in the story was the daughter of a senator with presidential aspirations. Those readers who are familiar with police procedurals will know what kind of political pressure is brought to bear to solve this rapidly.

    Not knowing the back story of Nick Lawrence, the protagonist, made following parts of the book difficult. Apparently he’s an ex FBI agent who for some reason or another was sent to prison. Then his death was faked to allow him to operate with a quasi government agency chasing the real bad guys. The group uses high tech methods to accomplish their mission. “Go to sleep” trans dermal patches to knock the bad guys out while being transported to “The Vault” for interrogation and such.

    It really is a fun read even without the background information needed. However, I think the author gave away too much information when writing the synopsis.

    Don’t read anything into my Four Star rating. I very seldom give Five Stars to action thrillers.

  • Jeff Benham

    I highly recommend that you read Kill List first. You won’t be disappointed. It introduces many of the players. There is a new drug in Boston and it is deadly. The first victim was Senator Buzz Litchfield’s daughter, who was basically coerced into going to a party she didn’t want to go to and the coerced in to trying the new drug that nobody had tested yet. The results were a fast but torturous death. There were witnesses for the two people who disposed of the body, though and Sargent Daniel Sorenson, leader of the elite Tactical Narcotics team has no trouble moving up the ladder to who sold the drugs. No sooner do they apprehend the suspects then Nick Lawrence and his team from the FBI Valhalla task force, move in and borrow them for an interrogation. The FBI does not share information well and this leads to some friction with the Boston PD. Between them, though, they climb to the top of the ladder and shut down the distribution of this deadly drug.

  • David Taylor

    I received an ARC of Murder 8 which is the first book by Brian Shea I have read and chose to provide this review. While this is the latest in the Nick Lawrence series and I didn’t have Nick’s full backstory, it was an easy story to get hooked by and easy to follow. After the first page I found myself needing to keep reading to see how this story was going to play out. I’ll leave it to other reviewers to retell the story, what I hope to convey to anyone reading this , if you’ve never read one of the previous Nick Lawrence books, hey grab this and give it a shot, its pretty easy to accept Nick has a past and a little of it is disclosed in this book. As I said before this my first book by Brian Shea, but it’s not going to be my last.

  • Kathleen

    "Murder 8" earns 5/5 Addictive Thrills...Engaging and Intense!

    I ventured out beyond my "comfort zone" with cozy mysteries, and into a crime thriller novel, "Murder 8" by Brian Shea. With a compelling theme illustrating contemporary issues with illegal drugs, Murder 8 is a lethal drug combination of heroin and fentanyl that has caused the recent spike in drug-related deaths including the daughter of a senator touting anti-drug reform. Although not my favorite perspective, Shea did well putting the drama in the center and all the characters on an equal footing with a third-person narrative. The journey is an intense page-turner starting right off with the tragic high profile death that seems to be the catalyst for a major investigation by elite law enforcement groups. The lead character Nick Lawrence and the Valhalla group team up with Boston's narcotics squad to uncover the supplier and their network, but sharing isn't in their nature causing additional conflicts. Shea's writing style is very entertaining and "addictive," keeping the adrenaline up with vivid descriptions and dialogue that did well to illustrate tone, emotion, and personalities. The end had a satisfying, realistic conclusion; no magic bullet to create a drug-free society, but enough justice for everyone. I was very pleased to enter Brian Shea's thriller world, and although I would have liked a bit more insight into Nick Lawrence, there are more books I am eager to read.

    Disclosure: I received an ARC. My review is voluntary with honest insights and comments.

  • Jo Ann

    Happy family

    A terrific story of sacrifice . Murder . Love and Family. Highly recommend this book and Author Brian Shea. Plenty of action and so well written

  • Susan Fox

    You will never figure out the plot of this award winning master crime thriller author Brian Christopher Shea, but when you get to the end it will make perfect sense. See my review is a puzzle! 😉

  • Martin Pingree

    This was so much fun to read ! A behind the scenes FBI team tackle a drug overdose of a highly respected Senators daughter. Great cast of characters, non stop action and a terrific story line make this one hard to put down !

  • Tere Fredericks

    What an Ending of Series

    Senator Buzz Litchfield, an undeclared presidential frontrunner, is giving a press conference about drugs on the streets when he is notified of a crushing loss.

    Fentenyl is flooding the streets of Boston and people are dying. Senator Litchfieldʼs Hope Initiative is designed to help get not only the drugs off the street, but help for the addicts.

    Just as the Boston Police Department officers, warrant in hand and after a breathtaking arrest are rewarded with men from Valhalla whisking their suspect away. Sorenson, on the short list for lieutenant, is angry to lose his suspect, one at great peril to himself. It cannot be helped, orders are orders.

    After some time in the Cube, the special interrogation box used by Valhalla, the suspect “sings like a canary” and gives up his supplier.

    Mouse, recruited by Nick to join Valhalla after Gatorʼs death (see, Targeted Violence) demands to handle this next step up the chain to get the fentenyl off the streets of Boston. A buy is arranged.

    Shooting. The suspect lays dead, an agent saved by his vest, and the death of another agent cause Declan to consider Valhalla is not worth his family losing him. He stays for Nick. And Mouse.

    The Boston PD special unit makes another arrest, learning first hand the dangers of the drug they are trying to get off the street, losing one of their own in the process.

    After two surprising arrests, helped along by Sorenson, the BPD commander which were snatched from under him, things at Valhalla change drastically.

    This end the series (no cliffhanger; an ending to bring tears) is tamer in some ways than the others. But. When the action starts, it is truly exciting enough to put your-no-nails left fingers into the palm of your hand so hard to leave marks.

    A fitting end to a dramatic series. All of the books in the series are suspenseful, action packed—and then some—however this one is the only one that isnʼt full of car chases and shooting, the one incident above notwithstanding.

    Brian Sheaʼs books are are a wild ride, all leaving the reader breathless. This series proves it. Highly recommended.

  • Darryle B.

    A terrific series. I am hoping it is not the end of it but we'll see. I enjoyed all five books and I am hoping for more in the life of Nick Lawrence. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the thrilled ride and I wanted to know more about the Valhalla Group and to see more character development between them. What I did not like is seeing two members killed off between the two books before getting to know them and their stories. Sure, in that line of work, we know that there's always that risk and possibility, but still, I'd rather such tragedies to happen LATER than sooner. In addition to Nick Lawrence's stories, the Valhalla Group would be a great spinoff. Overall, great series and highly recommended.

  • Angela

    A must read series

    This was an intense, suspenseful, and complex story that will capture you from the beginning. Although this is a fictional story, it definitely has a real world truth to it as well, maybe more than anyone knows. It's definitely an interesting and intriguing story, and a terrific ending to this series.
    I would definitely recommend this book, series, and outstanding author.

  • Cheryl Carmoega

    Great Series!!!

    Another Must Read on the Nick Lawrence series! Well developed story and characters as always. Good action throughout the book. One of the things I have truly enjoyed is the bond between Nick and Declan! Great strong believable characters!
    Mr. Shea you are one heck of a writer, keep them coming!!!

  • Vera Bruursema

    Wow. Great end to a fantastic series. Gotta love a book series that has a warm and fuzzy ending in the end of the first book and the end of the last book. I especially like that the plots teeter between realistic and over the top.

  • Megan

    Murder 8 was a fantastic final installment of a riveting series. Brian Shea always manages to incorporate twists that the reader doesn’t anticipate. I couldn’t put it down.

  • Janice Wartenbe

    Enjoyed the book and many others of his.