WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT MAY BE CONSIDERED SPOILERS.
Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Love Inspired Suspense, 2007.
How acquired: Bought.
First line: “It was a dark and sleety night,” I muttered as I slid behind the wheel and slammed the car door, grateful to have reached protection without drowning.
(Goodreads synopsis below.)
My thoughts: I was thrown off just a little as soon as I started this book because it’s written in first person POV, which I don’t think I’ve come across before in a Love Inspired. Not that I’m complaining. Merry is very likable and self-deprecating. Something else I’m not used to seeing in a Love Inspired. There was quite a bit of humor. Not laugh out loud, or even chuckle humor, but witty, bantering humor.
Merry is a journalist for the local paper, writing up mundane stories about Board of Education meetings and the like. After finding a dead body in the trunk of her car, Merry finds herself at the center of a murder investigation, and the killer seems to have turned his focus to her. Giving her the opportunity to write the biggest story of her life.
When her boss sends her to interview a local artist, she chafes at the thought. “A personality puff piece was the last thing I wanted to do now.” However, that interview introduces her to Curt, “a man in his early thirties who exuded energy, whose mass of curly dark hair was a far cry from the sparse gray I had anticipated.” Now, at this point you’re probably thinking Curt is the hero of the story and at the end he and Merry will have an HEA. It is a category romance after all. But no. Don’t get me wrong, he is the hero, as far as I’m concerned anyway, but by book’s end, while they’re squabbling like an old married couple, there is nary a kiss in sight, and certainly no declarations of love. Apparently their relationship will play out over the course of the series. Another thing I’m not used to in a Love Inspired!
The mystery was intriguing, with a couple of red herrings, and an on-the-edge-of-your seat chase through a steel factory. My only issue with the story was that when Merry realizes who is trying to kill her, it was quite obvious to me also, even though she doesn’t say his name. Then when he shows up immediately after, she only refers to him as the gunman, and doesn’t reveal his identity until the police close in on him. Which I understand as a narrative choice to keep the reader guessing, but I can’t imagine any reader not having already figured it out at the same she did.
But the fact remains, this is a delightful, amusing, suspenseful and engaging read, and I can’t wait join Merry in her next adventure.
Synopsis from Goodreads: Amhearst, Pennsylvania was just the kind of place for new beginnings for brokenhearted reporter Merry Kramer. But she soon discovered that danger lurked behind the lilac tree when a dead body turned up in her car!
The trouble didn’t end there—gunshots, attacks, and a handsome new friend who might not be what he seemed. Surrounded by suspects, Merry would have to use all her investigative skills to keep from becoming front-page news—as the killer’s next victim.
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