SHE’ S NO STRANGER TO THE DARKEST PLACES IN THE HUMAN MIND…
Devoted to her troubled clients, clinical psychologist Aimee Gannon never thought she’d be entangled in a murder investigation. But a middle-of-the-night phone call from the Sacramento PD delivers a shock: Aimee’s rebellious seventeen-year-old patient Taylor Dawkin could be a suspect in the gruesome murder of her own parents. Traumatized by the events of that fatal night, Taylor is left catatonic…and Aimee is desperate to reach beyond her silence to uncover the truth.
BUT HE’ S SEEN THE EVIDENCE FIRSTHAND…
Detective Josh Wolf needs Aimee’s help to decipher the clues behind a pattern of rectangles and circles that Taylor drew in blood at the crime scene. Unfortunately, he can’t keep his mind off the beautiful psychologist — those long legs, that irritating stubborn streak. But he can’t afford a moment’s distraction: After Aimee is attacked, she and Josh must race to uncover Taylor’s terrifying secret…before the deadly shadows of the past strike again.
Dr. Aimee Gannon knows that Taylor Dawkin is a troubled young girl. Even knowing that, Aimee is shocked when she is called to the hospital only to find Taylor catatonic. Aimee can scarcely believe what Detective Josh Wolf is telling her; Taylor was found in her home with her murdered parents, covered in their blood. Not only that, but she drew strange symbols on the wall using her own blood. Though she knows that Taylor is the lead suspect, Aimee is certain that Taylor did not kill her parents. Convincing Detective Wolf is another matter entirely.
Detective Josh Wolf had never seen anything as spooky as the teenage girl painting the wall with her own blood while her dead parents lay in the room. He doesn’t put very much stock into shrinks and his attraction to Aimee Gannon makes him trust her even less. He knows the attraction is mutual, but having been burned by his fiancée, he has no intention of having a relationship with a woman that burned her own fiancée.
The mystery element of the book was by far the best part. While the romance was good (hot even), the suspense was better. There’s not only the question of why Taylor keeps drawing the same symbols over and over. There’s the question of why she even had to go to therapy in the first place. When Aimee looks back through her notes and speaks with Taylor’s aunt, she gets a better look at Taylor’s past and concludes that the trauma that made Taylor change virtually overnight actually happened ten or so years ago. Aimee just has to figure out what that trauma was and why it’s affecting her now. Josh isn’t nearly as interested in going back that far. He wants to know who murdered Taylor’s parents and why.
There were a few things that I didn’t like about this book. There was a stalker. He seemed so creepy and scary at first, but at the end he was just a big ‘ol wimp. He also seemed to be a character that was there more to advance the storyline and the relationship between the h/h than anything else.
If you’re looking for a good romantic suspense, look no further.
4 out of 5