Review: If you like a good mystery, you'll like this one.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 31, 2013
Pediatrician Sophie Redmond is new in town.  The small town's only sheriff Damon Watson is the one to investigate her when she is accused of murder, yet again.  The more they find out about each other, their attraction for each other builds.  Both have been burned before and are not particularly interested in a relationship.  The story follows these two as they dabble in love while the murders unfold.One of the first things that struck me about this book is my Great Movie Rule. My Great Movie Rule goes something like this:  If within the first 5 minutes or within a movie's opening scene, someone is killed or has sex, then the movie will be a great movie.  I don't know why, but it seems to work in movies.  In the first chapter of this book, there is a death.  The second chapter followed with sex.  It was at that point, I wondered about my Great Movie Rule and whether or not it can be applied to books.  The book did start out strong.  However, I am not willing to create any rules based upon one book.  Books are more intimate than movies.  Scenes do not have the same feel in books they do in movies.  So, for books, I am not sure if this really works.  It did make me wonder though and it's worth noting for the future.I just loved the mystery.  I am a fool for mysteries.  The murder, kidnapping, and romance were all engaging elements.  The romance was rough, rocky, and passionate - like real relationships often are.  Character development was good.  And, believe it or not, somewhere, I have a post about the lengths I went through to taste some of my own Aunt Betty's apple pie.  (I really need to get my own writing up here on this site.)  So, this little detail, of course I loved.There were some other details which could have been clearer with another round of editing.  The timing was off.  How long do water samples take?  Two or three days or a month?  The incident with the stepfather occurred before graduation and yet the family was estranged for only the prior year?  A practicing pediatrician would have had her graduation from medical school at least 5-6 years ago.  She has her residency and specialization after graduation.  We do not know which graduation, really.  The undergraduate and high school graduations would have been years before.  It was implied that this was the high school graduation.  Yet, the estrangement was only a year ago?  There's also the 48-year old woman giving birth?  There's another plot problem I cannot disclose without ruining the ending.  It's not that these things could not have occurred.  I do tend to give a lot of leeway to writers.  This is their world they are sharing after all.  I just wondered if the author realized these conflicting facts and felt these parts needed to be explained further.  I also was not sure of the setting.  The story seemed to be taking place in the southern part of the USA, yet words like "bloke" found their way into dialogue, which by the way was hard to follow at times.  Another round of revision and this would have been beautifully polished.The ending was good, although a little bit of a cop-out (forgive the pun).  Although Sophie's investigating did get annoying, there were differing points of view that could have been utilized here.  I can't say much more than that without ruining the book.It's definitely worth reading.  If you like a good mystery, you'll like this one.  Due to the erotic nature of some content, I would recommend this book for mature audiences only.Disclaimer: All books reviewed by me have been received via purchase, lending, or given to me by an author or publisher for the purposes of an honest review. No reviews are purchased. They are my own opinion.