Close to the Bone
Close to the Bone by Kendra Elliot is the first in a romantic suspense novella duology and features a creepy cold case on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest.
Cate Wilde is a FBI Special Agent who is taking some time off after being shot on the job. She’s staying with her grandmother on Widow’s Island, where she grew up, when a skeleton of a young woman is found on nearby Ruby Island. Cate and her childhood friend, police officer Tessa Black, team up to try and identify the remains. They might belong to a young woman who disappeared a few years ago or possibly to Cate and Tessa’s high school friend who vanished one night when they were all supposed to sneak out and meet each other, a case that haunts them both.
There’s a nice gothic quality to the mystery in this book, but the romance angle doesn’t appear until the end, and even then feels forced. Cate and the local doctor and coroner, Henry, develop some feelings for each other, but it feels like an after thought.
The ending to the mystery is pretty satisfying and it sets up nicely for the sequel, A Bone to Pick by Melinda Leigh. As straight suspense I’d give this novella an A, but it fails to hit its mark with the romance angle.
– Elyse
FBI Special Agent Cate Wilde is back home on a remote Pacific Northwest island when she gets the call: a teenager’s skeletal remains have been found on a nearby island.
Together with Tessa Black, a childhood friend turned local deputy, Cate confronts dreary weather and bleak leads to make sense of the death. The complications pile up as Cate is distracted by the coroner on the case—and by nagging memories that draw her twenty years into the past. The remains suggest eerie similarities between this victim, and Cate and Tessa’s friend Samantha, who disappeared when she was fourteen.
Cate finds herself up against closemouthed locals, buried town secrets, and even her own heart. As the case unravels, will she be able to cut through the fog and find justice for the missing and the dead.
Mystery/Thriller, Novella, Romantic Suspense, Romance
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