Dee Henderson returns to fiction with a captivating stand-alone tale of romance, mystery and suspense that pairs Ann Silver, “Midwest Homicide Investigator,” with Paul Falcon, “FBI’s top murder cop.” Divided into eight segments, five introduce multifaceted characters while three bring the complex, multi-plot narrative to a fascinating conclusion.
Readers first meet FBI Special Agent, Paul Falcon at a Chicago crime scene where he finds four bodies, a narcotics cop shot twice in the back, once in the head and three “civilians” who got in the shooters way.
In a few short pages they meet Ann Silver, pilot, writer, small-town sheriff and homicide consultant for the Midwest police departments with information that could solve thirty cold cases by a mysterious assassin known as “The Lady Shooter.”
Add secrets, government cover-ups, a serial assassin, murder, romance, faith, love wealth, extended family and readers are treated to a book that’s hard to put down. From Paul’s first meeting with Ann, her detailed account of a mysterious death in the Midwest to her professional affiliations with all branches of law-enforcement, this never-married, mature FBI guy’s interest is engaged.
Still, Ann looks for friendship and little more because of a case she revisits in her nightmares where she wakes in fear, reliving the torture once again. She has many, many friends, some in high places, however her most trustworthy companion, her dog Midnight, who she calls “Black.”
The complex storyline wraps an extraordinary love story inside a unique mystery, a feat not many writers can accomplish, without one suffering from the other. Yet Dee does that and more, with her fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat, character driven narrative that keeps pages turning to find out what-happens-next.
Several things I appreciated about this author I’ve never read before. She doesn’t use curse words, violence, and sexual innuendo to tell her story. She doesn’t use blow-by-blow descriptions of violence for violence’s sake. Then the extraordinary number of sub-plots within the main plot she draws together, thread-by-thread, as the story draws to a close.
Although Dee is a new author for me I look forward to reading more of her award-winning work. Her novella, Jennifer: An O’Malley Love Story arrives June 2013 with the “story behind the story” of Dee Henderson’s popular O’Malley series.
If you like fast-paced plots, mystery, suspense and romance, Dee Henderson is not an author to miss.
