Death In Smoke

Gritty and intense! Complex and compelling! An edgy mystery full pulse-pounding suspense! The fast pace of the of the wildly-captivating plot kept me swiping the pages feverishly long past my bedtime.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

Fast paced, tense and filled with potential villains of the duplicitous, murderous variety.

An amateur sleuth stumbles on the frozen body of an acquaintance and stirs up the local police with her efforts to solve the horrible murder in the winter woods.

Lelia Goodfriend goes for a walk to clear her head while attending a creative retreat with her eccentric group of Red Barn artist friends, on a remote island off Cape Cod. She stumbles across a body buried in the snow, and she knows this person! It is the ex-girlfriend of Steve a member of the retreat. Lelia calls Detective Grace to the scene. Lelia and Grace have a strange 'friendship' going on. Lelia can't let the police investigate. She too does her own detective work, and it could end up badly. I enjoyed the author's first book more than I did this one. It seemed to drag on too much for me. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.

After a blinding snowstorm, artist and amateur sleuth Leila Goodfriend wakes early in the morning for a walk in the woods to think, to escape. When she stumbles on the bloodied body of a woman buried in a snow bank, Leila digs desperately, her fingers bleed, shaking with fear, she knows who it is.

It’s Susie, the ex-girlfriend of Steve, a failed photographer she dumped months before.

Leila was at a creative retreat with her eccentric group of Red Barn artist friends, on a remote island off Cape Cod. On the rebound from a relationship, Leila found herself attracted to Detective John Grace, a partner in both romance and crime investigation.

However, when the police arrive on the crime scene, Detective Grace warns her not to investigate a murder case, again.

As an artist, Leila knows that bodies have a story to tell. Leila slips into Susie’s autopsy—and the body reveals an enigmatic clue:

Susie died on a bed of long-stemmed roses.

Steve, the police’s prime murder suspect, begs Leila to help him—swearing he has evidence that Susie’s killer is a suspect in a cold case in Kansas. Leila confronts the suspect, pocketing an intriguing piece of evidence—an arrowhead.

Tracking the trail of blood and revenge from Cape Cod to a Native American casino in Kansas, where a ritualistic murder reveals a cold case killer—and a deadly secret from Leila’s past.

Great book, by an author I will read more of! Thrilling plot, great writing and brilliant characters. Highly recommend to others.