First in a new series called Echo Falls by high-quality author of romantic suspense, Marta Perry, is a tale of power and manipulation. ECHO OF DANGER begins as a widow and her five-year-old son are instructed that they will be moving into their father in law's house as their own home is to be sold. Deidre Morris is taken by surprise and her late husband's father, Judge Franklin Morris, will brook no refusal. She stalls, but for how long?

Echo Falls, Pennsylvania, is the county seat, surrounded by traditional farmhouses and Amish farms. Jason Glassman arrives to work as a lawyer from a big-city practice in Philadelphia, smarting from a scandal which hadn't been his fault. The judge, now his employer, just wants to use him to snoop on Deidre, hoping to find evidence of instability, or infidelity while his son was alive. This would provide leverage to give the judge more control over his grandson, young Kevin. Jason doesn't much trust women after a failed relationship and agrees, though the task makes him uneasy.

In fact, Deidre is more concerned with meetings of the Echo Falls Bicentennial Committee, which Jason finds totally tedious. But returning from a meeting one night, Deidre finds the door open, the babysitter injured and unconscious and her precious child hurt. What on earth has happened? Jason is around to call for aid but looks like the town is more dangerous than anyone realised.

Town dwellers include competent Police Chief Carmichaels, women like Deidre selling Amish crafts in shops or on websites, and normal home-makers. We learn that Deidre isn't alone in having manipulative, selfish older family members, and in modern times it's a good idea to lock doors and fit motion-sensor lights. I really enjoyed the hike out of town to the waterfall, with the ridges and valleys providing different environments to the farms we usually associate with the state. Behind all the local gossip though, we feel a constant sense of menace, betrayal, and interference. The tale is complex, with past misdeeds catching up to the present and murder casting a shadow over daily lives. Marta Perry has outdone herself with this masterly work of characterisation and suspense, ECHO OF DANGER, which is suitable for anyone from older teens to adults. I'm looking forward to the next book.