This tense series opener from Mehl (Cold Vengeance) pits an ex-cop turned mystery novelist, a former FBI agent, and a small-town police chief against an elusive serial killer. Ever since losing her partner (and lover) in a gang shooting, former St. Louis police officer Erin Delaney has been depressed, guilt-ridden, and haunted by nightmares. Not even writing a bestselling novel managed to get her out of her funk. So when her friend Kaely, a former FBI behavioral analyst who consulted on Erin’s book, suggests the pair meet at a cabin in the Smoky Mountains for a restorative week away, she agrees. But Erin barely has time to settle in before local police chief Adrian Nightengale seeks her help in assessing a gruesome crime scene, which Erin suspects is the work of serial killer. After Kaely arrives, she and Erin begin to work on a profile of the killer for the police. As the bodies pile up and the pair struggle to uncover the links between victims, they also draw on their faith to unpack Erin’s trauma, which leads them to a breakthrough in the case—though they fear it may be too late to keep them out of the killer’s crosshairs. The novel’s dual story lines—the search for the killer and the processing of Erin’s trauma—are each engrossing. Unfortunately, Mehl doesn’t always toggle between them seamlessly, resulting in some abrupt character development. Still, readers willing to overlook those flaws will have fun. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/03/2025 | Details & Permalink

The brutal realities of 1880s Wyoming frontier life undergird this action-packed series opener from Peterson (A Truth Revealed). Charlotte Aldrich, 21, bitterly resists her father’s efforts to marry her off to lawyer Lewis Bradley—she’s long been in love with her brother’s best friend, Micah Hamilton, who still sees her as a little sister. After Charlotte’s father and brother freeze to death in a snowstorm, Charlotte’s consumed by guilt, and Micah’s father, who found the pair, kills himself. Both families keep the suicide a secret to avoid the community’s judgment, and Micah sinks into a deep depression, rejecting God and numbing the pain with alcohol. A year later, Charlotte’s mother recruits a still-miserable Micah to help out on their ranch, and as he spends more time with Charlotte, he begins to heal and to see her in a new light. But trouble still lurks in the form of Lewis Bradley, who’s increasingly determined to marry Charlotte, even if it means getting Micah out of the way first. The propulsive plot surges along as Peterson throws hurdles and hardships into her protagonists’ way, though wooden exposition flattens their characterizations (following her father’s death, Charlotte bears “the truth and guilt alone”; “[after] how she’d treated [him], she told herself she didn’t deserve to be happy”). Still, there’s enough drama here to keep readers turning pages. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/03/2025 | Details & Permalink

Hunt (The Sisters of Corinth) sets this immersive tale of tragedy, faith, and renewal at the height of Nero’s reign over the Roman empire. Eighteen-year-old Calandra has no desire to marry. She's content to live with her sculptor father, Pericles, and spend her days making pottery and offering sacrifices to the Roman gods. When Pericles is commissioned to sculpt the emperor but is then blinded by a deadly fire that sweeps through the city, Calandra must complete the project herself. Stressed and struggling to keep the arrangement a secret, she looks to the gods for comfort, to no avail. Meanwhile, she grows closer with a group of Christians who care for her and her father in the fire’s aftermath. As more of her loved ones accept the new faith despite the emperor's efforts to scapegoat Christians for the fire, Calandra must decide what she believes and how far she’s willing to go to uphold it. Calandra’s relationship with her father serves as a powerful emotional through line, adding resonance to a fast-moving plot shaped by the religious and political upheavals roiling the empire. Both a propulsive narrative and a vivid window into a volatile historical period, this captivates. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/03/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this sweet if silly contemporary, Millet (Juliet Monroe Has a Plan) pairs a plucky New Orleans café owner with a former crush who’s recently moved back to town. Reeling from a breakup, 40-year-old Kate Landry spends her days raising her 13-year-old niece (whom she’s parented ever since her sister died more than 10 years ago) and running Beignets & Books, the café she dreams of expanding into the French Quarter. Though her plate is already full, when she bumps into childhood friend and new town librarian Micah Guidry, it reignites a spark rooted in their seventh-grade kiss. But lots has changed since then—Micah is divorced and Kate’s grown increasingly guarded after her own breakup. When construction at the library leads to one of its events being relocated to Kate’s café, the pair is thrown together and Kate must grapple with her romantic feelings, as well as mounting anxieties about her increasingly rebellious niece. Kate makes for an endearingly hopeful heroine as she flits between self-doubt and faith in search of a happy ending, even if the romance storyline can be a bit cringey (“You look guilty,” Micah says at one point—“Guilty of illegally crushing on you,” Kate thinks in reply). It's not perfect, but there’s enough here for a frothy good time. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/03/2025 | Details & Permalink

A bighearted dentist becomes the unwitting target of criminals in Blackburn’s gripping latest Gossamer Falls novel (after Never Fall Again). Meredith Quinn loves providing dental care to the families of small-town Gossamer Falls, N.C. When she ventures into neighboring Neeson County to treat an emergency patient and discovers an impoverished community ruled by human traffickers and drug dealers, she knows it’s probably a mistake to stay. Meredith can’t help getting involved, though, and after she helps a young woman escape an abusive relationship, she becomes a target of the criminals. Meanwhile, sparks fly with handsome Gray Ward, the local sheriff who’s been assigned to protect her and is scarred by a dark past that makes him certain he will never love again. As danger closes in, Gray struggles to protect Meredith while keeping her at arm’s length, and both turn to God to find a path forward. The dark, propulsive plot is intercut with refreshing moments of levity provided by the colorful cast, including Meredith’s overprotective brother, Mo, who offers to “give [Gray’s] computers a virus” when Meredith comes home heartbroken. Blackburn’s fans will enjoy this. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 01/03/2025 | Details & Permalink

Sundin (Embers in the London Sky) delivers a pulse-pounding tale of divided loyalties during WWII. Cilla van der Zee is a member of the Dutch resistance who infiltrates the local Nazi Party to gather intel, but as conditions grow increasingly violent, she decides to escape the country. Agreeing to serve as a Nazi spy in the U.K.—but planning to change her name and disappear once she arrives in England—she boards a U-boat headed across the North Sea. Things go awry, however, and she winds up rowing a fishing boat to the Scottish shore, where Navy lieutenant Lachlan Mackenzie brings her to the police and she’s recruited to be a double agent. Cilla and Lachlan start working together, and his initial distrust turns into curiosity and then attraction as the pair bond over their faith. But when Cilla’s Nazi contacts begin to suspect that she’s hiding something and orchestrate a plan to bring her to Germany, she and her Scottish allies must find a way to protect her. Some readers may be distracted by the occasional cliché (Cilla’s “liveliness and cleverness invigorated [Lachlan] more than the sea air”), but Sundin’s tight plotting and snappy dialogue keeps the suspense high as the plot builds to its satisfying conclusion. It’s captivating stuff. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/22/2024 | Details & Permalink

Lost memories, bad actors, and natural disasters animate Goddard’s uneven latest (Hidden in the Night). Former U.S. military photographer Remi Grant is in Germany when a shooting at a café and an explosion a few hours later land her in the hospital without any memory of what happened between the incidents. When a shady stranger comes by the hospital to question her about it, she’s spooked and flees the country. She takes refuge at the Cedar Trails Lodge, a retreat in Washington State, where she hopes to recover her lost memory. Instead, she faces a series of increasingly perilous threats—ominous notes, lodge guests who might be spies, and eventually a catastrophic storm that forces her to rely on her faith (and fellow guest Hawk Beckett, a former military pilot) to survive. Individual scenes thrum with tension, but the narrative as a whole is undermined by contrivances. Remi’s memory loss in particular feels like a plot device, especially when she suddenly recovers the entire episode at the height of the present-day action. The result is an intermittently propulsive yet poorly constructed puzzle. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

A family copes with personal and health challenges in the tender latest from Carlson (The Christmas Tree Farm). Honey McKerry, 66, is doing her best to care for her dementia-stricken husband, CT, who frequently forgets where he is, injures himself, and wanders off their property. Their daughter, Jewel, a single mother, decides to return to their Oregon farm to help out. When she arrives to find her mother at the ER with her injured father, who doesn’t recognize her, she fears she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Thankfully, her parents’ charming neighbor Miguel is willing to help out after CT falls again and Jewel comes up with a plan to purchase a one-story modular home for her parents and turn the farmhouse into a bed and breakfast. To make it happen, she’ll also need the help of high school flame Aaron Hanford, who owns the modular home company and is looking to reignite their romance. All the while, Jewel grapples with the pain of watching her father become less and less like the man she knows. The sections from CT’s perspective are powerfully rendered, and Carlson adds emotional depth with moments of humor and the characters’ enduring faith in the face of loss. This is sure to tug on readers’ heartstrings. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

A librarian becomes the heroine of her own story in this frothy contemporary from Monzon (All’s Fair in Love and Christmas). Six months after losing her hair from alopecia—and being dumped by her fiancé as a result—Evangeline Kelly seeks a fresh start in Little Creek, Tenn. Determined to avoid getting hurt, she dodges the advances of rugged tattoo artist Tai Davis, turning her attention instead to matchmaking locals based on their reading habits. When it turns out that one of the men she’s trying to set up is already engaged, Tai proposes a deal: he’ll give Evangeline the inside scoop on the locals if she’ll go out with him. She reluctantly agrees, and as they bond over books and their faith, Evangeline realizes that her own skin-deep judgments—like the assumption that tatted-up Tai isn’t a “man of God”—are dashing her chances for love and happiness. The chemistry between the two flawed yet lovable leads sizzles, propelling the plot toward its sweet if predictable conclusion. Readers will be charmed. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Eason (Target Acquired) resumes her Lake City Heroes series with a propulsive game of cat and mouse between a fire marshal and an arsonist who’s eerily familiar with her past. As the story opens, deputy fire marshal Jesslyn McCormick is called to investigate a recent fire set at her own church, bringing back memories of the blaze that killed most of her family 20 years earlier. After touring the crime scene, Jesslyn and FBI agent Nathan Carlisle are mostly in the dark about the criminal’s aims. But when the arsonist strikes again, this time at Jesslyn’s gym, it becomes clear that she’s the target, even if the motive remains murky. As the threat mounts and Nathan becomes increasingly protective of Jesslyn, clues emerge—suspicious jewelry left at the scene of the fires; new, unsettling information about Jesslyn’s father—that ratchet up the suspense to hair-raising levels. Eason ably balances the escalating paranoia with heartfelt emotion as Jesslyn turns to God for help weathering the crisis and coming to grips with her past. The result is a thrill ride worth taking. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 11/15/2024 | Details & Permalink