Casee‘s review of Up Close and Personal by Carla Cassidy.
Detective Jordan Sampson is struggling to maintain a relationship with her young daughter while enjoying a new romance with an old flame. But Jordan’s personal life takes a dangerous turn when her old friends from school are killed off one by one.
I’m a big fan of Carla Cassidy, though I really didn’t enjoy Broken Pieces which is the last book I read of hers. The blurb intrigued me and sounded more like the kind of book I’ve come to expect from Carla Cassidy.
Going through a divorce and then losing custody of her daughter, Jordan Sampson isn’t in the best place at the moment. When a good friend convinces her to go to their fifteen year high school reunion, Jordan accepts only to have something to do. And while she enjoys catching up with a few of the people she went to school with, nothing prepares her for seeing Clint Cooper, her high school sweetheart.
The next day, Jordan is assigned to a new murder case. The murder of a woman that was on her cheer-leading squad in high school; a woman that she had just seen the night before. Jordan thought she had seen everything, but the brutal murder of someone she knew and recently spoke to horrifies her more than she will admit.
When another of the squad turn up murdered, Jordan and her team realize that they have a serial killer on their hands. They also know that as the former captain of the cheer-leading squad, Jordan has to be somewhere on the list.
In the midst of investigating multiple murders, Jordan is also re-discovering her feelings for Clint. He’s much different from the boy she remembers, but she doesn’t know if she can trust him. He was “the one” in high school and she can’t help but remember all the times they broke up and got back together. At this point in her life, Jordan isn’t sure that she wants another relationship.
The suspense aspect of the book was well written. It was a bit predictable, but not unbelievable. What I didn’t like was the inconsistency about Jordan and her ex. At the beginning of the book, the ex basically screwed her in the divorce. He got custody just to get back at Jordan. He was poisoning her daughter against her. Which was completely different from how it was at the end. Dane was actually an ideal ex-husband. He wasn’t trying to keep Jordan away from her daughter. It was all just very confusing.
It wasn’t enough to ruin the book. It probably would only seem like a minor inconsistency to most readers.
Aside from that small problem, this book is what I expect to get from Carla Cassidy.
4 out of 5.
This book is available from Signet Eclipse. You can buy it here.
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