Review: [Indigo Romeo Lima]

[INDIGO ROMEO LIMA] by Cat Connor (2025)

Reviewed by JA Harrison

Private Investigator and reformed spy Veronica "Ronnie" Tracey is about to face a nightmare she never saw coming. It all starts when she corners a woman snooping around her friend Emily’s house—only to discover the intruder, Kerrin Costa, had hired Ronnie's own Nana to find someone for her. Costa claims she's searching for a missing cousin, but here’s the she’s an agent with SIDE, Argentina’s shadowy intelligence agency. Suddenly, this isn't just a simple person in the wrong place at the wrong time situation—there is something much darker is at play.

Fearing Costa's real interest lies with Emily, Ronnie enlists her PI partner to watch over her friend. But when Ronnie arrives at Emily's bookshop, she finds her partner unconscious and Emily gone. Two men have abducted her—and that’s just the beginning. As Ronnie digs deeper, the trail leads to unsettling revelations. Foreign agents, tangled secrets, and a past Emily can’t even remember collide in a web of lies. Everyone is after Emily. Or more precisely, what she doesn’t know she has. And now, time is running out.

In another life, Cat Connor was a bookstore owner who stocked New Zealand indie books. She was a hero to those of us who struggled to find a market. I was one of those authors and so I picked up her latest book with a sense of quiet anticipation.

​[Indigo Romeo Lima] is the sixth book in this series (and I’m sure the title meant something, but I didn’t get to figure it out). Not having read any of the previous books, I went into this one like an uninvited guest who turns up at a party and doesn’t know anyone. It took me a while to sort everyone and their relationships out.

The other thing was my lack of ability in the field of technology. This book will be easy-peasy for younger readers who know apps and things like that. Words like Siri and What3words were out of another dictionary. It was a hazy wonderland into which I had landed, feeling a little like Dorothy in the land of Oz. But if you know how to use all the ‘apps’ on your mobile, and your computer doesn’t loom at you like an evil force, you’ll be alright.

The story is a complicated one, full of secrets and people who are or aren’t who or what they seem, with different names and a myriad of careers usually using acronyms. Which makes them all rather sinister and shadowy, and with unknown agendas. “Not everyone tells the truth,” Veronica says. “I almost laughed at that idea. These days no one told the truth. You can’t even believe what you see.” Indeed. And it all adds up to a damnably clever book.

It all revolves around Emily, an ex-cop, assistant PI and manager of a bookshop (nice one, Cat, instant rapport) and friend of Veronica Tracey, who is herself a PI and ex-espionage agent with connections to some sinister organizations. Emily has been kidnapped, and Veronica is determined to rescue her. She calls in her team to assist; Enzo, Ben, Crockett, Dane, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. And while not wanting to do the spoiler alert thing – I’ll just say that halfway through the book you will breathe a sigh of relief, turn a page and…

Wait, there’s more! Diamonds, stolen paintings, cartels, terror groups, espionage agencies. Connor does not loosen the reins and the story races along like a horse on meth, leaving this reader out of breath and needing a Tylenol.

Connor is an accomplished and experienced writer whose style reminded me of the American writers of crime during the ‘golden age’. Sparse, choppy with little or no description other than that necessary to set time and place. There were no pauses to admire the architecture or the scenery, no moody introspection.  ‘Just the facts, Ma’am.’ Just ker-pow!

My recommendation would be to read this one after you’ve read at least one of the previous books. You are in for a treat, with a set of devious characters who have a lot of skill and little conscience but still manage to do the right thing. !. 

This review was first published in FlaxFlower reviews, which focuses on in-depth reviews of New Zealand books of all kinds, and is reprinted here with the kind permission of Flaxflower founder and editor Bronwyn Elsmore.