Metsy Hingle, Black Silk

Black Silk

Metsy Hingle

Mira, Mar 2006, $6.99, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0778322815

New Orleans Detective Charlotte "Charlie" LeBlanc joined the force a little over five years ago when an unknown assailant got away with murdering her sister Emily. The killer remains at large with no clues forthcoming. Her partner Vince Kossik calls Charlie while she leaves yellow M&M's at Emily's grave site, as she always has on her late sister's birthday. A homicide similar to the strangulation death of Emily has occurred.

The victim Francesca Hill was to marry wealthy Realtor J.P. Stratton. The crime scene points to someone who knew the victim committed a planned non-passionate murder. The two detectives soon look at who in the wedding party had a motivation to kill Francesca. The evidence points towards two of Stratton's adult children, Cole and Holly, as each had a public dispute with the deceased. Complicating the case, Charlie is attracted by the prime suspect Cole, who also might have killed her sister.

BLACK SILK is an intriguing police procedural romance with the added spin of having the lead detective and the prime suspect falling in love. The storyline is action packed, but in many ways driven by the demons that haunt Charlie, who chides herself for not protecting her sibling and for failing to uncover the identity of her killer. A secondary romantic subplot augments this exhilarating romantic suspense in which fans will wonder if Cole is a killer, a lover, or both.