The Man from Gossamer Ridge by Paula Graves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm not sure exactly what to say about this. It's a category, so the relationship is necessarily abbreviated. It's part of the Cooper Justice: Cold Case Investigation series. I hadn't read the previous book (Hitched and Hunted), and I could follow along just fine, but I was certainly spoiled big time for the ending of Hitched. To me, The Man from Gossamer Ridge came off similar to a procedural television show episode. I enjoy the heck out of procedural shows, but I'd rather watch an episode than read it.
Still, the killer was kept pretty much under wraps until the end of the book, thanks to some authorial sleight of hand. I thought the characters were well-sketched, considering the constrained format. The heroine was probably my favorite character as I appreciated how Graves handled her and kept her from straying into 'too stupid to live' territory.
I pretty much only read categories if they get awesome reviews or have been nominated for something, but I'd be more likely to read them if Harlequin released, like, an e-anthology compiling all the books from a series into one volume. Categories have a short lifespan at my library and I really dislike not starting a series with book one.
