Dark Pursuit, by Brandilyn Collins

Reviewed by Marion Kelley Bullock

In this page-turner, Brandilyn Collins lives up to her reputation as a seatbelt suspense novelist. She hooked me on page one and refused to turn me loose until I finished the final page. It’s that good.

Novelist Darell Brooke, age 77, is still only half mobile after his auto accident. His broken bones healed, but his ligament damage did not. To top it off, he suffers from depression and is unable to concentrate. Odds are, he won’t be able to write his one-hundredth best-seller suspense novel.

Kaitlan Sering, Darell’s pregnant granddaughter, discovers a dead woman in her bed and is horror-stricken. Two other women in her town have been murdered. She’s terrified the killer is her boyfriend, Craig Barlow, the police chief’s son who told her some of the facts surrounding those other cases, facts no one else knew. What can she do? Obviously she can’t go to the police.

She turns to her estranged grandfather, from whom she stole money for drugs years ago. He has no use for her and she shares his dislike. She has accused him of caring about nothing but his writing. But known as King of Suspense, he has lived suspense for over forty years. He’s Kaitlan’s only hope for concocting a plan to trap the killer and save her life.

Brandilyn Collins has woven a piece of black and green silk through this exciting novel of pride, forgiveness, and second chances. If you’ve read her other suspense novels, you’re bound to love this one. If you’ve never had that experience, you’d better rush out and buy a copy of Dark Pursuit now. You don’t know what you’re missing.

LOVE FINDS YOU IN MIRACLE, KENTUCKY

By Andrea Boeshaar

Review by Marion Kelley Bullock

Meg Jorgenson flees from an impossible situation in Chicago. She moves in with her loving Grams in Miracle, Kentucky, and accepts a teaching position in a charter school for gifted children in nearby Stanford. She wants to turn her life around. From the beginning, she feels a sense of calm. What a contrast to the smog and city noise, the cars honking, people shouting. She yearns to clamp onto this peace and make it her own.

Vance Bayer, widower, is drawn to Meg, and she has trouble keeping her mind off him. Others who get in on the action are Kent, the P.E. teacher, Leah, Meg’s new friend, Meg’s father and his “other” family, and finally—her mother. Vance’s eight-year-old daughter, Cammy, handicapped with a spinal cord injury (SCI) after a wreck that killed her mother, plays cupid.

Will Vance accept Meg’s suggestion that he consider an experimental procedure that might give Cammy back the use of her legs?

This is a sweet romance, but not syrupy. Andrea’s characters are imperfect creatures who deal with real problems. Can these broken lives be healed? This is worth reading.