Traces of Guilt by Dee Henderson

Evie Blackwell loves her life as an Illinois State Police detective . . . mostly. She's very skilled at investigations and has steadily moved up through the ranks. She would like to find Mr. Right, but she has a hard time imagining how marriage could work, considering the demands of her job. 

Gabriel Thane is a lifetime resident of Carin County and now its sheriff, a job he loves. Gabe is committed to upholding the law and cares deeply for the residents he's sworn to protect. He too would like to find a lifetime companion, a marriage like his parents have.

        

It takes something truly special to bring me out of “retirement” and begin blogging book reviews again.  A new novel by Dee Henderson is just the type of motivation that I needed to dust off the laptop, bring up the blogger webpage and spend days trying to remember my password.  Either way, it’s good to be back and even better being able to start with a novel by Dee Henderson.

Nobody likes a cold case, nobody except Evie Blackwell that it is, and nobody can work a cold case better than her.  Taking some time off for vacation, Evie heads to Carin County to pilot a new task force dealing with cold cases.  This time, the cases involve a missing 6-year old girl and a missing family of 3, including a local deputy.  Evie arrives in town and sets up in the old Post Office to begin her investigation of these cold cases.  Assisted by the Sheriff, Gabriel Thane, she begins to uncover several avenues that were overlooked in the initial investigation.  Between the cold cases and other mysteries involving Sheriff Thane’s family, this is one book that will keep you heated up.  So get going and BUY THIS BOOK!!

I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t been much of a fan of Dee Henderson’s latest novels.  Not that there are anything wrong with them, but from my perspective they haven’t been up to the normal level of suspense that her first group of books were.  Thankfully, though, this book (and hopefully the whole series) is a throwback to her great suspense novels of the past.  We are introduced not only to Evie Blackwell, who appears to be the lead in this new series, but to Sheriff Gabriel Thane and his family.  Dee also brings back several characters out of her other books to throw in a bit of familiarity to her long time readers.  With all of the moving pieces of this story, you have a book that will keep you turning the page well into the night

Is this a "guy's book"?  Between all of the happenings with Evie searching for answers to these cold cases and the obvious additional storylines for additional novels that are set up in this book, this is a sure bet for any guy to pick up and enjoy.

About the Author:

Dee Henderson is the bestselling, award-winning author of 15 previous novels, including the acclaimed "O'Malley Series" and "Uncommon Heroes Series".  She is a lifelong resident of Illinois.