First Date: Divorce

Finished January 2

First Date: Divorce by Patricia McLinn

This book is the first book in the series The Wyoming Marriage Association. 

I've read books in three other series by this author and enjoyed them. I chose the book to meet a reading challenge left over from 2025. This book lets us see a variety of viewpoints. The main female character is K.D. Hamilton, a sheriff's deputy from Montana who has been trying to get her boss to let her do investigative work. K.D. was raised by a single mother after her father abandoned the family, and her mother remarried after K.D. left home. She is wary of relationships. She has been lent to the sheriff's office in Bardville, Wyoming and has just arrived at the ranch she was told to come to as the book begins. 

The main male character is Eric Larkin, a lawyer who has been living in Bardville for a short time, having moved there from Chicago after his divorce to be close to a couple of friends and have a fresh start. Along with him has come his assistant, a widowed friend of his mother's. The assistant is on the ball and trying to get Eric to be more social. Eric has kept to himself for the most part, except for his friends, the sheriff and a private investigator who is ex-FBI. 

The situation is a local business just outside of town, who is leasing a county-owned building and operating as a luxury retreat specializing in marriage counselling. A number of couple who stayed there left even more determined to split up, and they've all had one person who engaged a local lawyer for a divorce. Before renewing the lease, the county wants to ensure there isn't anything shady going on. 

K.D. and Eric will pose as a married couple who've been separated a while, but are attempting a reconciliation. Since Eric has kept to himself, no one in town outside of his friends is aware that he's divorced. There is a tight timeline, and they have to create a backstory complete with photographic evidence, so a few ranching women come together to stage wedding and other couple photographs. As K.D. gets involved, she learns more about Eric's ex and why they split. 

The mystery is pretty tame, but the romance has some sizzle. A fun read.

Busted

Finished April 28

Busted by Karin Slaughter

This novella is in the series featuring Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), the state equivalent to the FBI. Here, Will is undercover and headed towards his assignment, one that took a lot of effort and planning to set up his identity. He's stopped at a convenience store for an icee, but the machine is super slow. As he's waiting a cop arrives and comes in to use the washroom, but after that things begin going very wrong. 

This is fast-paced, with a lot of action including a chase scene. There are a few bodies, many stories that don't stand up to scrutiny, and an unexpected mastermind behind the crime. 

Despite the short length of the story and the fast pace, you don't need to be familiar with the series to enjoy the read. If you are familiar, there are a few subtleties that make it even better. 

Hidden

Finished February 27

Hidden by Rebecca Zanetti

This romantic suspense novel is the first book in a series that is centered around a small unorthodox group of government agents. There are two main characters. Pippa is a woman with a past that she fears will one day catch up with her. Malcolm was an undercover cop who is drafted into the small government team early in this novel. When Malcolm moves into the house that shares a yard with Pippa's it doesn't take long for them to notice each other, but they are both wary for their own reasons. 

The team Malcolm is drafted onto is made up of misfits, people who have traumas, and many have interesting quirks. 

Pippa has a job where she can work from home and interacts with others rarely. She has one woman that she meets from time to time and we learn gradually just how they know each other. Just as we learn the life that Pippa has fled, and what she has left behind.

We also learn about Malcolm's past and why he ended up where he is now. 

There are some formulaic elements to this story, and a few things that seem unlikely as plot devices, but the story is a fast-moving one, with elements of violence and sex in small doses. 

I picked up the book to meet a reading challenge, trying out an author that was new to me. 

Protecting the Heiress

Finished February 6 

Protecting the Heiress by Nana Malone

This novella is billed as the first of a duology, but it is more properly the first half of a novel as it doesn't wrap up either of the main storylines, the mystery or the romance plots. I chose it from free Kobo books to meet a reading challenge. 

It's set in a small fictional European country called the Winston Isles, and follows several characters. The two main characters are Jax and Neela, but it starts with Ariel. Ariel has started her own company after leaving the Royal Guard of . She is putting together a team based on recommendations from friends and former coworkers. The first one she approaches is Jax Reynolds, and she's been following him for a while as he works a case. He's been working in London, but used to be a Royal Guard and would like nothing more than to get back in. He quit for a woman, and when that relationship didn't pan out, he found himself without the job he'd loved. 

Jax's first job is to go undercover as a nanny for a woman who recently took custody of a friend's child. There is some uncertainty whether the friend's death was an accident, and her lawyer doesn't want anything to happen to the child. 

Neela is a cryptanalyst who looks into security issues for companies. She had started the company with her boyfriend, but that relationship has recently ended and he's been not playing very nice about how the company is being split. When she unexpectedly finds herself the guardian of a baby, she finds herself happy to accept the help the lawyer has arranged for her, unaware that she is also gaining protection for her and Mayzie. 

Jax knows better than to act on his attraction for his employer, but the attraction is mutual, and hard to ignore. When Neela gets threatening messages and other dangerous things begin to happen, things get pretty intense in another way.

The cryptology angle of the story is interesting and I liked both the main characters. We see many other side characters, from the King of this small country to Neela's coworkers, but other related series follow them in more depth. 

As I said, this book leaves the reader wanting more. 

The Downstairs Neighbour

Finished January 25

The Downstairs Neighbour by Helen Cooper

This novel has a mystery that develops soon after the book opens and soon becomes the focus of the main story of the book, taking place in the present. There is another story from 25 years earlier that pops up now and again and it takes some time to see exactly how that story relates to the present day one.

The title is also intriguing, because it is unclear exactly who it pertains to. 

In a house in a London suburb, Paul and Steph live with their teenage daughter Freya on the top two floors. There are a close family, and Freya spends time with both her parents as well as with the family as a whole. Paul is an ex-cop and a data analyst, but he doesn't talk much about his previous career. Steph works in the first class lounge at Heathrow airport, making sure everything there runs smoothly. Freya is a popular and energetic teenager. 

Below them, on the ground floor, Emma lives. Emma owns her own vintage store, where she sells clothing, jewellery and other personal and decorative items. Things haven't been going well lately, and she has closed up shop, and has a deal to sell the shop very soon. She has a hamster named Gilbert, and his nocturnal activity has led her to move his cage to the cupboard underneath the stairs going up to her neighbours. She has discovered that when she is in there she can hear, fairly clearly, conversations going on upstairs. Emma is also waiting to hear from someone, a man named Zeb, that we don't learn much about until later in the story.

Below her, in the basement flat live Chris and his wife Vicky. Chris is a driving instructor, and teaches many of the young people in the area, including Freya. Vicky is a nurse. It seems that they are growing apart lately, although it isn't entirely clear why. 

One evening Emma senses unusual activity and soon hears that Freya hasn't come home from school. No one seems to have heard from her and she isn't answering her mobile. When the police ask Paul and Steph whether either of them have enemies, it seems that maybe they don't know as much about each other as they thought. Emma and Chris get drawn into the investigation too, through contact with Freya and an unknown person who seems to be sending a message to someone in the building. 

In the part of the story twenty-five years earlier, teenage Kate is worried about her mom. It's only been the two of them for a long time, but now her mom has a boyfriend, Nick, and she seems a lot quieter than before. The two of them often stop talking when Kate enters the room. When she sees bruises on her mom she gets scared and isn't sure what to do. So she calls a cousin, who's also a friend, for advice. 

As the two stories slowly unfold, there is a tense feel to both stories as we wonder what will happen, and the secrets that so many people have gradually get revealed. 

This is not a fast-moving story. But it is one that has you turning the pages, wanting to find out more. As we learn more about the different people, they become more and more interesting and imperfect. A fascinating story with long trails to the past. 

Death of an Addict

Finished August 20
Death of an Addict by M.C. Beaton

This book is part of the Hamish Macbeth series. Hamish is a policeman in the small village of Lochdubh, responsible for a large area of the country around it. The nearest big town, and where he reports into, is Strathbane. Hamish has done well for himself, and turned down promotions several times as he likes where he lives and what he does.
Here, Hamish goes to see a crofter Parry McSporran that he knows is renting out cabins to see how it is going. Two of the cabins are on long lets, one to a young English woman environmentalist Felicity Maundy, and one to a young man Tommy Jarrett who is working on a book. The latter's name sounds familiar and Parry has him do a check to see if the young man has a record. He does have one for possession of drugs, and Hamish goes to talk to him and decides Tommy is being honest when he claims he is clean now.
The day after Hamish visits, Tommy is found dead, with suspicion of an overdose. This doesn't sit right with Hamish and he decides to dig a little, against the wishes of his superiors. His digging leads him to the drug world and has him going undercover with a young female officer, who is superior to him in rank.
As usual, Hamish is quite a character, a man who pays attention to details, but who is a bit naive at times. He gets in over his head a couple of times here, but he learns a lot and uncovers some criminal activity. Blair, the man he reports to in Strathbane is on leave as the whole thing begins and isn't pleased when he returns to discover Hamish is impressing their superiors once again.
As always I enjoy this series and Hamish.

Front Runner

Finished January 31
Front Runner by Felix Francis

Our hero for this novel is Jeff Hinkley is a senior investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, the BHA. He has done a fair bit of undercover work, but one of his recent cases has him more in the limelight that he likes. Derrick Smith nearly had one of his horses stolen, an act thwarted by Jeff's work, and now he can't stop singing Jeff's praises. One of the leading jockeys, a man he has become friends with, has called him to talk face-to-face. The conversation is difficult as the jockey wants help, but doesn't necessarily want to admit what he is being blackmailed for. When he calls to continue the conversation the next day, indicating he has additional information, Jeff is put into a position that narrowly misses being fatal. The jockey turns up dead shortly thereafter, an apparent suicide. When this is followed a couple of days later by another attempt on Jeff's life, he begins to dig deeper into the people he has met and the things he has seen, looking for those things that don't look quite right.
Jeff is close to his older sister Faye, who is undergoing cancer treatment and while he doesn't always get on with her husband Quentin, he does respect him and he legal knowledge. Jeff is also still recovering by being dumped by his fiance. When he meets Henrietta Shawcross at a function Derrick invites him to, he can't believe that she would be interested in him. As he begins this new relationship, he also finds himself caught between his investigative instincts and his feelings.
Another great thriller built around the world of horse-racing. Francis never disappoints.

The Soul of Discretion

Finished July 23
The Soul of Discretion by Susan Hill

This is part of the series featuring DCS Simon Serrailler. I love this series and the characters. Simon is with the Lafferton police and the odd man out in his family, where everyone else is a doctor. His sister Cat is also one of his best friends, and she is going through a bad time since the hospice she works at changed to a day unit. She is trying to determine what to do next, and has a couple of options open to her. But as a single parent after the death of her husband, money is a consideration.
Simon has allowed Rachel to move in with him, but he is still holding back in their relationship, and when he gets asked to go undercover to try to get more information on a pedophile ring, he agrees quickly. It is a difficult assignment, exposing him to images and descriptions of crimes that are beyond what he could have imagined. His father, now retired, seems to be having issues as well. Things aren't going well between him and his second wife, Judith, and he is impatient and quick to anger. When he takes an action that is beyond acceptable, events are set in motion that will change his life further.
We see different points of view here: Simon's, Cat's, Rachel's and others, all of them making difficult decisions, struggling with figuring out what the right thing to do is. These are competent men and women, but facing questions that are life-changing.
Simon's new boss Kieron Bright is a new character, and a likeable one. I hope to see more of him in future novels. I also like the new plot involving Cat's son Sam, who is thinking about his future.
This is a great read, but I expected that going in.