4 Stars from me
A gripping tale which follows FBI agent Reed Markham as he tries to delve deep into his own past to discover who murdered his mother – while he slept in a cot.
The story is rich and full of layers and depth – it crosses the timespan very well and with an authenticity.
Along with Reed is Ellery Hathaway who would appear to be someone who he rescued many years before – this back story is one I want to read more about and I will be backing a point of going back to book 1 to learn more! Their relationship develops during this book and it is clear that Reed has very genuine feelings for Ellery.
Reed’s family life is hugely privileged on one hand but also hugely complex on the other. His father is a certainly an interesting character and he fits the ‘all american bigshot’ brief well and truly!
Overall, this is a well put together whodunnit with interesting backstory.
Synopsis: FBI agent Reed Markham is haunted by one painful unsolved mystery: who murdered his mother? Camilla was brutally stabbed to death more than forty years ago while baby Reed lay in his crib mere steps away. The trail went so cold that the Las Vegas Police Department has given up hope of solving the case. But then a shattering family secret changes everything Reed knows about his origins, his murdered mother, and his powerful adoptive father, state senator Angus Markham. Now Reed has to wonder if his mother’s killer is uncomfortably close to home.
Unable to trust his family with the details of his personal investigation, Reed enlists his friend, suspended cop Ellery Hathaway, to join his quest in Vegas. Ellery has experience with both troubled families and diabolical murderers, having narrowly escaped from each of them. She’s eager to skip town, too, because her own father, who abandoned her years ago, is suddenly desperate to get back in contact. He also has a secret that could change her life forever, if Ellery will let him close enough to hear it.
Far from home and relying only on each other, Reed and Ellery discover young Camilla had snared the attention of dangerous men, any of whom might have wanted to shut her up for good. They start tracing his twisted family history, knowing the path leads back to a vicious killer—one who has been hiding in plain sight for forty years and isn’t about to give up now.
Read and Rated 