[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
Amy and her choreographer boyfriend, Richard, have been as close as ever. But when he goes away for a weekend to a family event, things get strained. And Amy wonders if their relationship perhaps wasn’t all she thought it was.
When one of Richard’s dance students goes missing that same weekend, the police are very interested to hear Richard’s take on his relationship with the girl. The rumor is that she was seeing an older man. Amy just wants everything to go back to normal.
But that’s not likely. Amy’s ex, Charles, is back in town. He moved into a mountain home with his girlfriend – the woman he was seeing on the side when he was dating Amy. The girlfriend was recently killed in a hit-and-run. While Amy sympathizes for him in the loss, she wants no part of him in her life.
The missing student’s project supervisor, a local folklorist, is convinced some folks in town are up to no good, and she’s determined to expose their secrets unless she gets what she wants. Nothing good can come from that approach.
Review
This was an uneven story for me. And I really enjoyed the first two books in the series. I felt like there were too many story threads at work – especially in the early chapters – for me to have a good hook into the story to propel me forward.
I generally like the characters in this series, but Richard wasn’t very likeable early on. And I didn’t see a lot of reasons for Amy to be so forgiving after the way he treated her. I softened to him a little after reading what his parents were like, though. Ugh.
The mystery felt a little scattered to me, too. There was the missing student right away, but a murder didn’t happen until almost a third of the way through the book. It left me questioning where things were going for a lot longer than I generally prefer at the start of a mystery.
The ending, though, was satisfying. Lots of suspense for the wrap up of the mystery. Then there were several more chapters to wrap up the rest of the story threads – several more in addition to what I included in my summary.
If you already enjoy this series, give this one a whirl and see what you think. You may enjoy the various plot threads woven throughout the book. If you haven’t tried this series before, I’d suggest you go back to book one first and see if the characters and setting are a good fit for you. The character development in the series makes reading the books in order important.