Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Wild Hearts - Sharon Sala

Wild Hearts
Sharon Sala
Mira, Mar 31 2015, $7.99
ISBN: 9780778318163

In 1980 Mystic, West Virginia, eighteen year old Connie Bartlett drives at 100 MPH with a car in pursuit of her.  Inside the auto with her are her boyfriend Dick Phillips in the front and in the back are Betsy Parr and Paul Jackson.  All four drunk and afraid of what they witnessed hope to reach the police.  Losing control, Connie dies in the accident while the three passengers survive but with no memory of what happened.

Three decades later, Betsy Jakes arrives at Dick Phillips’s farm to buy eggs to make a special dessert for her son police chief Trey on his birthday.  Instead she finds Dick committed suicide by hanging himself.  Betsy wonders if his death ties back to the accident that neither can recall any details.  Trey arrives at the scene and soon calls Dick’s daughter Dallas.  Grieving she refuses to accept her dad would kill himself even if the family farm was in financial trouble.  In honor of him Dallas implements his concept to save the spread, which angers someone who is willing to kill to get what they want.  As the danger mounts on Dallas, she and Trey fall in love, but being a small-town Mountaineer was not in her life plan.

The first entertaining Secrets And Lies romantic suspense contains a modern day homicide police procedural tied to a cold case vehicular death and a contemporary second chance romance.  The fresh two-generation mysteries hook the audience throughout while setting up the next entry (see Cold Hearts); whereas the well-written lead couple’s relationship feels somewhat typical of the subgenre.


Harriet Klausner

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