Review: Highly Satisfying Romance-Mystery
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 22, 2012
This book is part mystery -- there's a dead body, a six year old Abby was murdered in her own house; part paranormal -- the ghost of Abby appeared in front of Detective Matt Bennett and led him to her body in the basement; part romance -- Matt Bennett met a renowned medium Kiernan Fitzpatrick who ended up helping Matt to find out more about what had happened with Abby and there was attraction; and part thriller -- when Matt investigates the case with Kiernan, outside of his role as detective (since he has been put into administrative leave), the murderer starts targeting Kiernan as well.It rounds up the story into just the right of everything for me -- chemistry, action, sexual tension, angst (Matt lost his lover 1.5 years ago and his newfound attraction to Kiernan made him start to let go), romance (oh wonderful romance), great sense of humor and repartee (mostly from Kiernan because he is just adorably charming) ... with a mix of light horror (Chapter 1 alone, when Abby first appeared, gave me goosebumps).One good thing about romance in mystery setting is also the ability to mask off insta-love. Truthfully, the event here only happened in a week from the moment Matt met Kiernan and fall in love along the way. However, I never feel like it's instant because there are enough of actions going on, as they zero in the murderer and discover the truth.Their first kiss comes around half-mark and there's one chapter where it seems to be "dedicated" with the love-making (which worried me a bit when I first read it, afraid that it would become too much) but even so, the investigation never really stops. It moves along in the right pace and Ms. Copland times everything flawlessly.There are two significant female characters (well, four, if you count Abby-the-ghost and her mother), Matt's sister-in-law who happens to be his best friend as well and Kiernan's big sister, Aidan. Guess what? They're neither annoying or bitchy. So refreshing.Verdict: a really satisfying combination of paranormal-mystery-romance with two likeable protagonists that I'd love to stay-up-all-night reading about and coming back to from time to time ...