Action, personal drama, and romance fill this police thriller set in Sugarland, Tennessee. Detective Shane Ford has a good friend who's a football star. When the player is found dead at home, Shane is suddenly the legal guardian of unhappy Drew, his sixteen-year-old godson. In SWORN TO PROTECT, Drew understandably doesn't like the idea of moving from a city to a town, changing school and leaving his home. But nobody was prepared to hear that the clean- living football player had died of a new designer drug based on amphetamines.

Shane had a brief romance with Daisy Callahan, another detective, against regulations. Both regret that it ended but can't seem to restart the situation. As Daisy takes responsibility for juveniles she gets involved with Shane and Drew. The moody boy doesn't like his new schoolmates and takes up with one boy who seems different. Just as Daisy and Shane decide to date in defiance of regulations, Drew starts sneaking out for destructive behaviour.

Jo Davis has previously written a series about Sugarland, The Firefighters of Station Five, some of whom reappear in this tale, Her characters and background are well established. However this reads perfectly well as a standalone and there are plenty of investigative particulars, from the case of a vagrant shot dead to tracking a consignment of drugs. Also the sad details of clearing out a house after a death, and readjustment to life without parents ring true. Shane is described as a serial bachelor but he has to adapt fast to parenthood. Daisy does seem too fast to accuse him of stepping out behind her back; but perhaps her pride was hurt as well as her heart. She also jumped in to a rowdy situation well over her head, which I thought was inappropriate for someone with her training and experience. Lesson: women come off badly in fights against big men.

SWORN TO PROTECT is an adult romance, intimate and believable between two people discovering that nobody in the world means more to them than their lover. There's also criminals and police action aplenty, enough to keep the reader on the edge of the seat. I read this book in a sitting and recommend it both to fans of Jo Davis and anyone who wants to get started on her stories.