"They say you can never come home again - but he's going to try"
Reviewed by Clare O'Beara
Posted June 16, 2013
Romance Suspense | Series
Bitterwood, Tennessee has seen four abductions and murders
in recent times, and the warped mind behind these actions
is still at large. Local police detective Ivy Hawkins
meets returned security man Sutton Calhoun at the scene of
the latest crime. Sutton's been asked to investigate last
month's murder but the police don't have to give him
access. Not alone that, but Ivy recalls him from school as
seeing one or two girls too many for her liking.
MURDER IN THE SMOKIES is hard to tackle because the local
departments are not so well resourced as a big city. But
everyone knows everyone's movements, and the dead women
were well liked. It's possible they were killed by
different people, but the methods used are similar. Trace
evidence is minimal and most people don't even lock their
doors. Sutton is sent a mysterious note to meet at
Clingmans Dome observation point at seven pm. and he hikes
up into the mountains, armed, with Ivy carefully trailing
him. Someone fires a rifle at them, and ducking, Ivy thinks
that it's just like old times around Sutton.
Danger draws the pair
closer and they start to share personal as well as
case information. The location is well described with
plenty of telling details and local attitudes. Finding a
link between the victims helps the pair to look at the case
with fresh eyes. The detecting really steps up a pace at
that point and I liked the skillful way the author Paula
Graves has assembled the situation and clues. Despite a
growing attraction Sutton and Ivy manage to remain
professional which made me respect their characters more
than those in other books who overstep boundaries with gay
abandon. Ivy sees no point in getting involved with someone
who'll just walk out of her life - again.
The tension and romance kept me reading while the family
backgrounds that the main characters had known and overcome
made them very human and slightly outsiders among the
community. I'll be looking out for more stories from
the i>Bitterwood PD series.
SUMMARY
A Cold Case Brought Him Home… When Sutton Calhoun shook the dust of Bitterwood, Tennessee,
off his boots, he never thought he'd return. But now he's
back to investigate an unsolved murder and has teamed up
with police detective Ivy Hawkins—the only part of the Smoky
Mountain hamlet worth remembering. A Steamy Reunion Would Keep Him There Ivy is a hometown girl and well aware of Sutton's
reputation. She can't help but find his smoldering eyes
resurrecting long-buried feelings. Plus, as the body count
rises, Sutton is the only one who believes her that an
eerily methodical serial killer is living among them in the
shrouded peaks of Bitterwood. Ivy doesn't know which is
worse—the desire she feels for a man who's nothing but
trouble…or the danger posed by a killer who has them in his
sights?
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