Up-and-coming attorney Leigh Larson fights for victims of sexual extortion, harassment, and online abuse. She is not afraid to go after the sleaziest targets to get payback for her clients. Leigh is laser-focused on her career—to the exclusion of everything else—until a seemingly routine case and a determined cop turn her world upside down.
Austin homicide detective Brandon Reynolds is no stranger to midnight callouts. But when he gets summoned to an abandoned car on a desolate road, he quickly realizes he’s dealing with an unusual crime scene. A pool of blood in the nearby woods suggests a brutal homicide. But where is the victim? The vehicle is registered to twenty-six-year-old Vanessa Adams. Searching the car, all Brandon finds is a smear of blood and a business card for Leigh Larson, attorney-at-law.
Vanessa had hired Leigh just before her disappearance, but Leigh has no leads on who could have wanted her dead. Faced with bewildering evidence and shocking twists, Leigh and Brandon must work against the clock to chase down a ruthless criminal who is out for vengeance.
Release Date: Sep 28, 2021
Heat Level: Warm
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley
Price: $7.99
“With every hour that ticked by, the benign explanations-Vanessa had had car trouble and hitched a ride to a friend’s, she’d called an Uber, she’d gone away with a boyfriend- were becoming more and more implausible. What was becoming clear to her sister, and had been clear to Brandon the moment he saw that the passenger door hanging open, was that something unexpected, and unexpectedly bad, had happened to Vanessa on that highway.”
Vanessa Adam’s car is found abandoned on the side of the highway, but she is nowhere in sight. What happened that made her flee her car fearing for her safety? Was she running from someone? If she was, who was it? These are all questions that Austin homicide detective Brandon Reynolds has to find out the answers to, but Vanessa’s attorney, Leigh Larson, keeps interfering in his case and his life. Can they find out what happened to Vanessa together before it’s too late?
I’m frustrated with this book. I spent eight days reading it. Yes, you read that right. Eight days. That is unheard of when I am reading. What was the problem you ask? Nothing was happening. Sure, there were words on the page, but no action and no chemistry. Just nothing. I kept waiting for something to happen, but as a reader you were left in limbo until the last 75 percent. Is she alive? Is she dead? What is going on? At that point I was not invested anymore in figuring out the mystery of what really happened to Vanessa.
Another thing that I had trouble with was that Brandon and Leigh as a couple do not make sense on page together. I think the author tried too hard to pair up a hero who is guarded and extremely stoic with a heroine who is uncommonly aggressive and confident, but it didn’t work. Brandon cuts off any conversation with Leigh after about five sentences. So, I never actually bought the emotional connection between them. It almost felt like they were attracted to each other because of the danger, and not because they really knew or liked the other person.
I think that this book is well written, and if you are already a fan of romantic suspense authors like Nora Roberts and Pamela Clare then this story might hit all the beats for you.
~ Michelle
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