Meg Chittenden, Snap Shot

Snap Shot

Meg Chittenden

Berkley, Sep 2004, $5.99, 304 pp.

ISBN: 0425198030

After being shot by a mark that she was investigating, private investigator Diana Gordon quits sleuthing as she is tired of injuries and feeling old at thirty-four. The part owner of G and J Investigations, Diana leaves the practice without asking for compensation from her partner, Bradley Jeffers.

One year later, Diana has relocated to Port Findlay, Washington where she has opened up a photography practice, the one skill from her previous work that means doing all the shooting and not being shot back. However, Diana has been roped into co-hosting the annual Port Finley Arts Alliance Photography Show with chiropractor Connor Callahan, a widower still "talking" to his beloved late spouse. As someone stalks Diana from her previous life with plans to kill her, she and Connor begin to fall in love. However, she has doubts as she has had one failed marriage and she believes he has room for one woman in his heart, his beloved deceased spouse of fourteen years.

SNAP SHOT is an entertaining Pacific Northwest romantic suspense tale that readers will enjoy due to the shy antics of the lead couple when they are near each other. The storyline is further propelled by eccentric secondary characters who constantly push the dynamic duo together, but not as matchmakers but for the photography show. The tense intrigue subplot is cleverly developed, but the key to this fine thriller is the personal dynamics between the reluctant yet hopeful prime pair.

Harriet Klausner