Series:
Coltons of Owl Creek (Book 12)
Justice awaits a serial killer…
With a K-9 team in hot pursuit.
To search-and-rescuer Malcolm Colton, hunting the
fugitive who terrorized his family is worth any risk on a stormy mountainside.
But when his trusty K-9 follows a scent, he's stunned to encounter Giselle
Dowling, the celebrity ghostwriter with whom he shares a past tragedy and
personal trauma. It's a bittersweet reunion as the estranged pair decide to
work together to stop the killer. As their search brings them closer to the
cult leader who threatens the Colton family, Giselle and Malcolm find themselves
falling for each other. Can Malcolm's K-9 help them bring down the killer and
lead them to a future filled with promise?
Good conclusion to this Colton series. Malcolm works on
the family ranch and volunteers with the local search and rescue and his K9 companion,
Pace. When he hears that the fugitive who terrorized his family is sighted on the
mountain, he and Pace go out on their own to find him. However, the first
person they found was Giselle, Malcom's almost sister-in-law. Malcolm and
Giselle have avoided each other since the tragic death of his fiancée and her
sister, Kate.
I enjoyed watching Malcolm and Giselle's relationship
develop as they worked together to find the killer. Both are weighed down by
their grief and survivor's guilt, determined to ignore the sparks that flare
between them. The author did a terrific job of showing their conflicting
emotions as attraction battled grief. I could feel both characters' pain when
memories overcame them and rooted for them to find healing together. I loved
Malcolm's support and encouragement of Giselle as she also battled to regain
her confidence after a problematic professional setback. I also liked the
resolution of that issue.
The suspense of the book was excellent. Two storylines run
throughout the book. The first is Malcolm's ongoing search for those
responsible for Kate's death. It has been three and a half years since the
accident, but he hasn't given up. Things look up when he gets information that leads
to the identity of the boat's driver.
The second storyline runs throughout the series as the
Coltons and law enforcement pursue a cult leader and serial killer who has
terrorized his family. His "off-the-record" search starts with
encountering Giselle and their attempt to warn a neighbor about Markus Acker. The
action intensifies throughout the book as Acker's attacks escalate. The
occasional section from his point of view shows his growing desperation. The
final confrontation was an intense, edge-of-the-seat scene that kept me glued
to the pages until it was over.
Two of my favorite characters were Malcolm's dog, Pacer,
and the puppy Giselle adopted. Besides being Malcolm's SAR partner, Pacer
provides emotional support when Malcolm's grief overwhelms him. Scarlett is an
enthusiastic beagle puppy that turns out to be unsuited for service dog
training. I loved seeing her and Giselle connect and the effect Scarlett had on
Giselle's grieving. There were some amusing scenes involving Scarlett, one of
which was one in which she was instrumental in saving the day.
I loved the last chapter and how it wrapped up the series
for all of the couples.
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