Well-Written Romantic Suspense from Colleen Coble, A STRANGER'S GAME

Real-life romance comes with doubts and concerns, not just amazing kisses — and seasoned author Colleen Coble presents that kind of well-rounded romance once again in her new book A STRANGER'S GAME.

The premise is new and interesting: Torie Bergstrom is actually the working daughter of a wealthy and powerful resort developer, and she doesn't often come back to the the Georgia property where her mother tragically died. But when her best friend also loses her life at the Jekyll Island resort, Torie slips into place under cover to dig into what's happened. 

Her charming meeting with a little girl and her dad, Joe Abbott, who are rescuing baby turtles, gives her a break from the tensions of grief, undercover work, and the actual security position she's stepped into. But unless she reveals the truth about herself to Joe, how can they build a friendship, let alone the romance that keeps tickling her heart?

Yet the minute Torie resumes her usual identity, she's got multiple risks in play: that Joe won't continue the friendship (or more), that the killer, if there is one, will target her, and that her relationship with her father may suffer.

Coble allows a reassuring glimpse of Joe's own integrity, losses, and motives by alternating the narrators of the book -- he and she both have their turns. Joe, for instance, is getting to know Torie when she drops some Latin on him:

"Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur," Torie said.

Joe blinked, then grinned. "I took Latin too. 'One's friends are known in the hour of need.'"

A pleasant warmth spread from his midsection at the realization she considered him a friend. It was a start.

Torie in turn gets to do some questioning on her own, with her father:

She stared into his blue eyes. "Why did you never remarry, Dad? You must have had plenty of opportunities over the years. Mom's been gone eighteen years."

He moved restlessly. "I've always been wary of anyone with an agenda. And too many women who flirt only want what my money and position will bring. They never look past the name to really see me."

"That's exactly how I feel! I didn't know you had the same fears."

In highly satisfying scenes, with just enough risk and plenty of insight, Torie and Joe learn everything they need, in order to figure out who's the criminal, and why—and what their own future may be.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

Clever and Enjoyable Regency Mystery, TWILIGHT AT MOORINGTON CROSS by Abigail Wilson

At the opening of TWILIGHT AT MOORINGTON CROSS, many a mystery reader might guess at villainy: Mrs. Amelia Pembroke, a lovely young widow, is a long-term patient at Cluett's Mesmeric Hospital in Regency-period England. She's not getting better — her ailment involves falling asleep at moments entirely outside her control, along with some sort of seizure disorder. Mesmerism, of course, is another term for hypnotism; Amelia's not the only long-term patient here who seems stuck.

When the handsome young solicitor Ewan Hawkins arrives to help the hospital leader with a change to his will, the bequest directly concerns Amelia. To her astonishment, she is the main beneficiary of that will. But the conditions being pinned to this are, to say the least, astonishing: The widow must marry one of two candidates that Mr. Cluett has proposed, or else fail to receive the money. In fact, not only will she herself be tossed from her home at the hospital if she fails to make that marriage -- but the substantial inheritance will go to charity instead.

Amelia is appalled. The solicitor doesn't much sympathize -- he thinks Mr. Cluett was generous in giving her a choice of willing husbands, since a woman on her own couldn't possibly handle the bequest.

So who is the villain here? Is it Mr. Cluett, whose treatments have failed? Is it the solicitor, or one of the rather odd potential husbands? Could it be the long-term nurse who worked with the doctor? And which of these is responsible for the abrupt death, perhaps by murder, of Mr. Cluett as soon as an explanation of the will has been made?

The only people Amelia is sure are on her side are the other long-term patients, who have become her best friends. But when she accepts the young solicitor, Mr. Hawkins, as an ally in a suddenly ominously threatening institution, he's not as confident about any of the others:

I nodded and turned to leave but he grasped my arm: "Mrs. Pembroke, promise me one thing."

"Yes?"

"I need you to be careful."

"Of course I will, but—"

His fingers tightened. "I mean a great deal more so than usual. Lock your doors tonight. You might have a maid pull a trundle into [the neighboring] room if possible. And above everything else, don't trust anyone. Not until we know exactly who might be involved in Mr. Cluett's death."

Abigail Wilson's writing is smooth and deft, and her plot threads and red herrings are carefully placed. The story is lightly backed by Regency customs, and more so by the legalities of widowhood at the time, laid out effectively and without fuss. Both action and sleuthing are lively and believable, and the pace is well chosen.

All in all, TWILIGHT AT MOORINGTON CROSS presents a well-crafted romantic Regency mystery that's a delight to read, and may well lure readers to Wilson's other four titles in the same entertaining genre.

Released today under the Thomas Nelson imprint of HarperCollins.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

Brief Mentions: Mysteries from Kelly Irvin, Carrie Doyle, Cate Quinn

Trust Kelly Irvin for intense plotting that highlights the suspense in "romantic suspense." Her February release, HER EVERY MOVE (Thomas Nelson), pushes together a librarian and a detective when a bomb explodes during a climate change debate. Among deft red herrings and page-turning pressure, and with compelling attraction between them, Jackie Santoro and Detective Avery Wick turn the library's next event into an effective trap for a killer -- and a test run for their irrepressible need for each other's deep and intelligent attention. "Wick had an intensity that reminded her of sticking a bobby pin in a socket." Looking for a lively beach read? Grab this one.

There's something about a cozy mystery set at a rural inn that's hard to resist, especially when the innkeeper, Antonia Bingham, is an outstanding chef with abundant comments about the best gourmet delights. With DEATH ON BULL PATH (Poisoned Pen Press), the prolific Carrie Doyle expands her "Hamptons Murder Mystery" series. Antonia's forced collaboration with an obnoxious local journalist keeps her relatively safe and helps track down the killer in a pair of summerhouse murders ... but only a very last-minute discovery salvages her own romance with her movie-star crush, Nick Darrow. "You have a proclivity for danger," says her best friend.

If you look up author Cate Quinn online, you can get quickly confused, since her hefty thriller BLACK WIDOWS (Sourcebooks) gets labeled a debut, or a US debut, or her first thriller -- but actually she's an established historical fiction author in Europe. Thus, her plunge into Mormon polygamy for this thriller is an outsider's view of Utah and the American-origin religion with its powerful traditions. Telling a murder story from the points of view of three wives is a novel approach, but doesn't allow readers to follow the time-honored crime fiction task of assembling clues and working out the killer. So the book's a lively read (and hefty!), but won't satisfy genre fans.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

Deadly Envy in a Science Lab, in Cara Putman's LETHAL INTENT

What happens when you blend a legal issue with a cancer lab, terribly ill children, and faith-based romance? Answer: a suspense novel with intriguing layers of complexity, from long-time "romantic legal thriller" author Cara Putman, published by Thomas Nelson.

When attorney Caroline Bragg steps into a high-pressure job at a biotechnology firm developing cells that may fight children's cancer, she's got two huge things going for her: experience in the patent process and government regulations, and an abiding inner joy that has a lot to do with how Brandon Lancaster is telling her he wants her in his life always.

Her first challenge in the new job is to assert herself: Petite and not grounded in the science itself, she could be easily mistaken for a beginner. When the scientists try to rush into treatment without the proper protocols, though, she puts on the brakes -- and suddenly she's not as welcome as five minutes before, since the people around her really want to save children, not wait for the approved channels.

Making things more complicated in LETHAL INTENT, there's more going on under the surface of the biotech company, and the author slowly gives a reveal of a malicious but unidentified person willing to sacrifice those very children, for revenge on the company. Caroline's so busy trying to keep her ambitious boss on the legal straight and narrow that she's late in realizing there's more than accidental mischief happening.

Strikingly, she's also pinned by nondisclosure requirements, once she realizes her boyfriend is an investor in the company she's working for. Here's a sample of Putman's romantic writing from Caroline's point of view about Brandon:

Caroline pulled up the pictures and scrolled through several shots. She'd have a closer look later, but she liked what she saw: a man who looked at her with adoration. She could get used to it and wanted to bottle the moment so she could pull it out when she felt alone.

When te nights were dark and she couldn't sleep.

She wanted to remember what it felt like to have his hand covering hers.

Remember the feeling of security and lent strength.

Remember that he found her worth loving.

LETHAL INTENT will suit romance readers more than standard mystery fans, since although Caroline is strong and makes great decisions, she really has little chance to figure out what's going wrong in the treatment trials and the company's action, because Putman frames the book with a secret villain's voice and little in the way of outright clues. Still, it's a good read for a winter evening, sweet and strong at once, and very smoothly written.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Cryptocurrency, Face Blindness, and Family: Siri Mitchell's Crime Novel EVERYWHERE TO HIDE

She's doing what she has to do to survive: Whitney Garrison's made it through law school, as well as her mother's death and the stress of student loans piling up, and her two jobs—one in a coffee shop, the other as a tutor to prep people for high-stakes testing—are paying her way near the DC area while she waits for her own high-stakes test into a legal career and a job that can cover her debts.

Meanwhile, her abusive ex-boyfriend living in DC continues to terrorize her, if only as traumatic memories, she's lying to her dad about how well she's holding together, and the final straw lands: She witnesses a murder outside the coffee shop where she works.

Now Whitney's a target for the murderer, who needs to kill any witnesses. But what the shooter doesn't know, and what the detective on the case has a hard time understanding, is that Whitney's not able to see faces at all. She suffers from a condition called "face blindness" and even in the coffee shop, she can only guess at which of her co-workers is standing next to her, or whether a customer is a repeat one or a newcomer.

And in this condition, the killer could walk up to her and order a soy latte, and she'd have no idea that a threat to her life had arrived.

EVERYWHERE TO HIDE spins this terrifying situation into a compelling thriller, as the detective on the case begins to bond with Whitney, while the force of threat around her escalates. Even Detective Baroni has doubts about her safety, as it appears that banking secrets among her friends may have erupted in the murder.

My scalp began to tingle. It all felt too much like my last weeks in DC. I didn't want to have to look behind every corner again, didn't want to have to wonder if someone was out there somewhere, waiting for me. I thought I'd left all of that behind. It felt like a vise was tightening around my lungs as I pointed out Mrs. Harper's house.

"Am I in danger?"

"I wouldn't have thought it, but your friend's message is making me wonder. If I knew what it was he wanted to talk to you about, then I might know for certain. But I would say that until we figure this out, you're safer if you stay in crowds. With groups of people. .... I'm just trying to let you know how serious this is. Rather, how serious it might be."

Turns out it's way more serious than even the detective could have guessed, and the multiplying threats and attacks on her soon tumble Whitney into homelessness, threaten her jobs, and put her life on the line.

Author Siri Mitchell provides an end note about the cryptocurrency issue that turns out to be the crime's focus, and about face blindness, formally known as prosopagnosia. Most importantly, she offers a compelling picture of how vulnerable each of us is, and how we find and nurture our support systems—while at the same time presenting a page-turner of steadily rising tension. 

Looking for a fast, intriguing crime novel? This is a good choice. It's Mitchell's second work of contemporary suspense, but she's had plenty of seasoning in earlier novels that pressed the romance side and is clearly an experienced storyteller, ready to spin the plot and the stakes toward a memorable conclusion. 

[The publisher is Thomas Nelson, and the release date is October 6.]

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

Best Beach Read Nominee: RELATIVE SILENCE from Carrie Stuart Parks

Pursuit of the American Dream can create enormous wealth and privilege, and Piper Boone's family seems to have it all — including Curlew Island, off the South Carolina coast. The family's foundation holds its board meetings there; Piper's politician brother when in residence manipulates his media coverage; and Piper's mother wields power over Piper as well, although she's far from a child. Fifteen years earlier, her daughter died when the family's boat was stolen, and although her ex-husband still comes to family business meetings, there's no joy here for Piper, locked in nonstop mourning and guilt.

Until one day, a terrorist attack at the café where Piper's gone to meet a woman friend tears bloody gashes in the fabric of her family, her self-esteem and her life. Ironically, the only person she feels almost able to trust is the man who's just saved her from gunfire: a former alcoholic who's half-drowned in his own losses and guilt, but working his way upward as both a forensic artist and member of a brotherhood of men helping each other find a way back to the love of holiness and a caring God expressed in the support of the people around them.

For Carrie Stuart Parks, RELATIVE SILENCE is the latest of seven published books -- some of which have been linked as a short series. This one appears to be a stand-alone, and the pace and strands of pain and doubt are expertly spun. So are the strengths that lead both Piper Boone and forensic artist Tucker Landry forward, through attacks that multiply, and a finale that lets loose all the force of the sea—and promises astonishing rewards for the road forward.

Here's the turning point for Piper:

I wasn't reasonable and rational at the moment. Someone had tried to gun me down. Tucker uncovered evidence that my father might have been murdered. The video I found indicated [my sister] Sparrow's death might have been more than an accident. My daughter had somehow survived and another child had died.

All I had to do was prove it all was true.

Adding spice to this great summer read is knowing that the author herself is a forensic artist and a speaker much in demand. Her ability to mesh a striking work of crime fiction with the harsh lessons of love and faith, without a single "soppy" moment, makes the book un-put-downable. Stash in the beachbag or move it onto the home deck. Test yourself: Can you figure the responsible criminals before Piper gets it sorted out? She'll keep you running, and turning the pages.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Brief Mention: CLOSER THAN SHE KNOWS, Romantic Suspense from Kelly Irvin

Kelly Irvin is best known for her Amish romance books, but she also has a set of romantic suspense thrillers, and her latest is CLOSER THAN SHE KNOWS. In a clever introduction of a career rarely featured in crime fiction, protagonist Teagan O'Rourke is a court reporter who writes the official records, and we meet her at a moment when her task is far different from the desk work -- she's been in a terrible accident and must protect the evidence traveling with her. Soon the book's revealed to be stalker suspense, with Teagan as the victim and her potential beloved, Max Kennedy, as a sometimes fumbling but determined ally.

Irvin's drive to forward the romance for the couple sometimes pushes scenes a bit off kilter -- when Max gets wounded, it's not the crime that's elucidated, but his passion for Teagan, as he whispers from his gurney, "All I could think about was you. ... Life is short." And Teagan's own inner dialogue about the crime is, "Not being able to take people at face value sucked the life from a person."

Readers of romantic suspense as a subgenre will find CLOSER THAN SHE KNOWS to work familiar ground; make sure the doors are all locked, though, because the stalker aspect is pretty creepy, and the number of victims escalates rapidly. Those looking for Christian-themed fiction may also want to pick this up, although the religious aspects are a bit basic and blunt. If we ever get to beach reading this year (six feet apart for those towels?), this book will fit into the beach bag nicely. Publication date is May 13.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Brief Mention: Colleen Coble, ONE LITTLE LIE, Romantic Suspense

Colleen Coble is an astonishingly prolific author, mostly of romantic suspense with a thread of church participation. In ONE LITTLE LIE, which seems to be the first book of a new series for her -- the Pelican Harbor Series -- Coble brings us Jane Hardy, newly appointed interim sheriff of a small waterfront town in Alabama. She's filling the shoes of her father, who's retired, but she gets the job unexpectedly and with no time to catch up.

Almost immediately, she's caught in a murder investigation, one that becomes increasingly creepy as at least one stalker seems to be involved. Coble's switches of viewpoint keep the reader more aware of the threat level than Jane Hardy is, which doesn't always work well in terms of plot twists and surprises. Everyone seems to be dropping hints all the time. On the other hand, this author is a master of suspense, especially of romantic suspense. Characters wonder about each other's thoughts and feelings all the time, even as danger heads their way.

Because it's clear from the start that Jane's past involves a cult, other aspects of the suspense are pretty obvious ... power struggles of the past will soon catch hold of her.

Whose lie is the dangerous one? Jane's? Her father's? The murderer's? Or even the premise of the cult itself?

If you enjoy feeling on edge all the way through a work of suspense, this one will suit you, while laying the groundwork for a sequel that's clearly in the pipeline.  Thomas Nelson released the book on March 3.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.