Into the Fire

Book 2 in the Morgan Dane Series delivers what appears to be Melinda Leigh's stock and trade: likeable lead characters and truly psychopathic killers. In Her Last Goodbye a mother of two young children disappears after a scheduled girls' night out which never happens. As is usually the case, her husband is the primary suspect for police so he goes to Sharp Investigations for help in finding his missing wife. The case is complex with little evidence and the lingering question haunts the husband and at times her investigators. Did the woman (Chelsea) willingly take a break from their colicky baby and little girl or was she kidnapped?

Since Morgan cannot fathom Chelsea leaving her children – and those interviewed insist she never would – Morgan refuses to entertain that thinking, believing someone has taken her. During the process of the investigation, another woman is found dead. This only intensifies the search for Chelsea.

Melinda shares the motives, thoughts, and brutal actions of her killers, allowing the reader to feel the evil that oozes from the existence of these perpetrators in her stories.

With Lance as Morgan's bulwark, and always extra muscle in this investigation, their relationship advances as they begin to understand they both need each other in more ways than the obvious.

Morgan is convinced something is missing in their investigation, but when they find it, the reader gets that "gotcha!" moment.

(As a side note, since there is one of these scenes, I'm not a fan of graphic sexual encounters in novels or films, finding them gratuitous and unnecessary. I feel the same way about overused profanity. A little goes a long way to implicate actions and thoughts. To use too much spoils it for me, making sex clinical and language crass – leaving the abilities of imagination on the cutting room floor.)

Another very good murder mystery by Melinda Leigh from the general market.

Father, you're the Author of Life, and I thank you for all of those who you've gifted to tell stories. May they experience the awesome power of knowing from whom their talent comes. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.