Day: June 13, 2021

Detective Ellie Reeves is back, and she is carrying a lot of baggage with her.

First point to make, if you haven’t read the first two books in this series, I would suggest doing so before reading this one.

While the case at hand does not require any prior knowledge and be read as a stand-alone, Ellie’s personal life takes a more prominent place in the story.

While the author does a good job of explaining things, I sometimes felt like it was “just enough” to get by. You will most certainly have a deeper understanding of Ellie’s frame of mind if you have her full backstory from the first books in the series.

Now, with all of that being said, the case itself is a good one. Just like Wildflower Graves, the author jumps right into the action.

(Side note: This is one of the few authors I have found who does this. Others may have a few months in between the action in books, and that’s fine. But these take place within a few weeks of each other.)

This immediate continuity allows for the author to build on experiences without having to go through a lot of exposition explaining what had previously occurred. It gives the story a bit of urgency and allows the reader to truly submerse in the story.

Submersion is good, because there is never a lot of time to breathe in these plots. Ellie pretty much stumbles across crimes in the Appalachian Mountains every time she tries to go hiking to clear her head.

It’s actually sort of ironic, really.

Anyway, you can read other book report reviews that recount the plot. I’m here to tell you that Ellie remains sharp-witted and a bit stubborn in her investigation process. There were a few times that I felt her personal life infringed on the investigation a bit too much.

But I also liked her growth as she comes to terms with the bombshell news. Ellie is not a static character; she definitely learns and adjusts as information continues to be revealed.

I will say that this story is told from multiple points of view and gets pretty twisty. If you’re not concentrating, you could get lost pretty quickly.

I would highly recommend setting time aside to really concentrate on this one, because it’s a good plot with a winning heroine, and you should give it the time it deserves.

Author Bio:

USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author Rita Herron fell in love with books at the ripe age of eight when she read her first Trixie Belden mystery. But she didn’t think real people grew up to be writers, so she became a teacher instead. Now she writes so she doesn’t have to get a real job.

With over ninety books to her credit, she’s penned romantic suspense, romantic comedy, and YA novels, but she especially likes writing dark romantic suspense and crime fiction set in small southern towns.