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UNTRACEABLE (Book 1)
Reed watched her, and she had that frustrated look in her eyes again. Every time she started to open up to him, he did something to tick her off. She shook her head and glanced away.
“Laney?”
“What?”
“I’m a detective. It’s my job to ask questions. To push.”
She looked at him again and her expression softened. “No, you’re right.” She glanced down at her beer bottle and picked at the label. “I’m glad she has you.”
“Who has me?”
“April. You seem–” She paused, like she was searching for the right word. “–committed.”
He didn’t answer. It wasn’t really a question, but the way she looked at him gave him the feeling she wanted a response.
She drained her beer and plunked down the bottle. “I should get home.” She stood up.
Reed stood, too. He left a tip on the table and followed her through the throng of people. The bar was packed, and the music had gotten louder since they’d first walked in.
They stepped into the warm, muggy air. It was dusk now, and a neon Lone Star Light sign cast a blue-and-red glow over the sidewalk. As they walked in silence, he thought of what she’d said about her job being meaningful. It was refreshing. Maybe he’d been a cop too long, but he didn’t know anyone who talked about things being meaningful anymore. If they thought about work in those terms, they kept it to themselves.
Maybe he was jaded.
No, he definitely was jaded. But it had more to do with his failed marriage than anything he’d seen on the job.
Reed spotted her little white car and felt a twinge of regret. He’d enjoyed talking to her, enjoyed being near her. And he couldn’t remember the last time that had happened with a woman. Having a beer with Laney had been the highlight of his crap week. Hell, the highlight of his month.
She looked around. “Where are you parked?”
“Around back.”
She gazed up at him. He couldn’t read her expression.
“Thanks for the drink,” she said.
“You bought it.”
He couldn’t read her tone either. The thrum of music seeped through the thin walls of the bar as they stood there in the light of the beer sign.
She stepped closer, and a jolt of heat went through him. She looked up at him with those bottomless brown eyes, and he knew he was in trouble. It was a bad idea to involve this girl in his investigation. Whatever useful info she might have was outweighed by the fact that she was young, and edgy, and he wanted her. And she must have seen something in his face because her eyes sparked.
She went up on tiptoes and kissed him.
##
Copyright 2016 Laura Griffin
There’s a pretty big age gap between the hero and heroine–Reed’s 39, divorced, and kind of grumpy; Laney’s 24, a brilliant hacker, and not fond of authority–but man, does their relationship work. On the surface it may look like these two are just too different, but Ms. Griffin had me convinced. I liked that they both went into their relationship as equals–even though Laney’s young, she has a real grasp of the dark side of humanity (partly from something that happened to her early on, partly from her work as a hacker and her experiences with the dark side of technology) that makes her about as un-naive as she can get, and a good match for the seasoned cop. She’s not going to take any crap from Reed but instead is going to keep the poor guy on his toes.
But he’ll be on his toes and smiling.
The mystery and suspense part of the novel was really well done. It kept me guessing right up to the end–I honestly never suspected the culprit, but once we know who it is everything just falls into place in the best way. (Gah! My heartbeat is elevating, just thinking about what almost happens toward the end. Really, the suspense is just soooo good. I can’t stress it enough.)
I am definitely on board for the rest of the series, no matter how many Ms. Griffin wants to write. Sign. Me. Up!
Deep Dark, like Shadow Fall, works well as a standalone. I’m pretty sure that some of the secondary characters we run into have been in other books, but you don’t at all need to have read them to have one heck of a good time reading this one.
Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author LAURA GRIFFIN started her career in journalism before venturing into the world of romantic suspense. She is a two-time RITA Award winner (for the books Scorched and Whisper of Warning) as well as the recipient of the Daphne du Maurier Award (for Untraceable). Laura currently lives in Austin, where she is working on her next book.
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