DEAD STOP – Jamie Denton
Brava
ISBN: 978-0-7582-1016-6
September 2008
Romantic Suspense

Serenity Heights, Ohio – Present Day

Deputy Chief of Police Beckett Raines has recently relocated to the small town of Serenity Heights to get away from the big city crimes, death, and despair of California. A small town in Ohio seems just perfect to him, especially after the death of his wife several years ago. His new life is going along all right until the Chief of Police has a major cardiac incident and Beck becomes acting Chief of Police, and now the worst thing in a policeman's life has happened. The maimed body of a young woman has been found outside of town, and not only were her teeth pulled out and fingers severed, but it appears she's been in a freezer for who knows how long. This surely isn't a good thing in a small university town full of young women. And after a bad experience with a reporter years ago, he isn't too happy about Ainsley Brennan bringing an audio tape to his office -- a tape of screams and what sounds like a young woman being tortured. Could this tape be tied in to the murder, and why is Ainsley being targeted to receive the tape?

Ainsley Brennan has had a rough life since both her parents died when she was nineteen, leaving her with two younger sisters and only Ainsley to take care of them. She had to leave college and get a job and try everything she could to keep her family together. Years of night school finally got her a degree in journalism, and Ainsley is now a reporter for the Serenity Heights Sentinel. The Sentinel is a small weekly paper, and her reporting jobs are usually pretty boring, but she has come to terms with her life in a small town and has no desire to move to a larger city. She has just moved her youngest sister Cassidy into the dorm at the college, and for the first time in years, she is alone and responsible only for herself, until an envelope with an audio tape is left at the front desk at work. When a second mutilated woman is found in the area, Ainsley takes the tape to the police department and Beck. Beck is quite a scrumptious hunk of a man, or at least from what she remembers of dating men he looks pretty good. But his feelings of distrust for reporters must be overcome before they can explore where the feelings they have for each other will lead them. The details of the murders and the person committing them seem to envelope Ainsley, Beck and the whole town. If the murderer knows Ainsley, is it possible she could be next?

Between Ainsley's sister Cassie and her roommate Paris and Paris's boyfriend Zach, things are happening quickly. More young girls keep disappearing, and Beck becomes scared for Ainsley as their relationship continues to grow. Written from Ainsley and Beck's points of view, and also Paris's, Cassidy's roommate, who is an old soul in a young body, the action proceeds quickly, and we gradually learn the identity of the murderer and how he picks out his victims.

Jamie Denton has written a riveting story featuring two characters you will come to love. Beck is a hardened policeman, trying to keep his humanity and live a new life in a saner and quieter place. Ainsley Brennan is a young woman who had to grow up before her time and mature at a young age. Neither of them expected to find love, Beck because he had it once, and Ainsley because the responsibility of two sisters has chased away most men in her life. But both of them are willing to take a chance and open themselves, ever so slowly, to the chance of love.

A special character is Paris, Cassidy's roommate, with a hard past and a view of the world that is very pragmatic. Her boyfriend Zach may not be much, but he is her last link to her old life. The various other police officers and university officials also round out the story, with the villain growing gradually more active in looking for victims.

DEAD STOP is a mystery that will be a special reading experience for you this month. Characters we come to admire and a mystery with just the right amount of tension make for a quality read with the perfect balance of tension and romance. You will definitely enjoy DEAD STOP this month if you enjoy a good story and a twisted villain.

Carolyn Crisher