Joyce Lamb, Cold Midnight

A decade ago, Kylie McKay had a promising career as a professional tennis player. That ended with an attack the destroyed her knee. Unable to remain in Kendal Falls, Florida, the distraught Kylie leaves.

Now ten years later, Kylie comes home to Kendall Falls as a new tennis facility is being constructed; however the digging leads to her cold assault case reopened with the finding of the bat used in that brutal attack. Detective Chase Manning, who loved Kylie before she left town breaking his heart, leads the investigation. As he begins to piece together a case against her half-brother Quinn, someone threatens to harm Kylie if she fails to leave town.

This is an intriguing mystery with a nod to the Harding-Kerrigan incident from several years ago. The story line is fast-paced and Kylie is a solid lead character who will receive reader empathy for what happened to her career and her current efforts to move on. The problem is Chase, who was a jerk a decade ago and to make up for his inability to be there for his beloved, he constantly apologizes at the same he holds a grudge against Kylie for leaving him; fans will think she needs to do it again. Still in spite of the cop COLD MIDNIGHT is an enjoyable romantic police procedural.

Harriet Klausner