Judith E. French, Blood Ties

Blood Ties

Judith E. French

Love Spell, Apr 2007,

ISBN: 0505527146

When Archeologist Abbie Chingwe Night Horse travels to Tawes Island in Chesapeake Bay County, she combines work and pleasure. The trip enables her to spend time with her mom while also investigating a Native American burial ground in which several artifacts have been recently found.

However, not long after the drowning death of a boy, someone murders Abbie's mother. Police Chief Buck Davis investigates the homicide and the drowning. He struggles to find a motive for the murder, but has begun to have doubts about the lad's death being an accident. While the townsfolk insist it is the curse, Buck falls in love with Abbie, but knows he is an islander and she is a mainlander. However, solving the case comes first.

This romantic and suspenseful police procedural will grip the audience from the moment that Abbie's mother is killed and never slows down until the final confrontation. The fast-paced storyline keeps readers somewhat off balance as the curse of disturbing a Native American burial ground begins to look more like the cause behind the deaths instead of a mortal killer. Though the killer seems a stretch, readers will appreciate this terrific, tense thriller.

Harriet Klausner