"strong romantic suspense thriller"

Over two decades ago, Police Officer Liz Rivas watched her husband Rick, a detective on the force, shot while both were off duty. Liz testified against her spouse's murderer at the trial, but the Mafia hitman's lawyer managed to keep his client free. The Feds placed Liz and her young son in the witness protection program.

For the next two plus decades, Liz has lived in Pfister, Missouri, as Jenna MacArthur, managing and operating the MacArthur's Park combo flee market and coffee shop. Her son now works as a cop. A stranger who looks vaguely familiar buys a Grisham novel from Liz. Paul Haggerty, a former cop, made a vow to Rick that he intends to keep. He found Liz via the Internet due to a site managed by her mother. As he and Jenna fall in love, he realizes he may have inadvertently brought danger to the woman he now cherishes.

This a strong romantic suspense thriller though why Rick's killer acts after two decades of walking the streets even if he risks eventual conviction is hard to grasp. Still the lead couple is a delight and the support cast adds the depth of small town Missouri into the mix. Fans of terse tales will be IN HOT PURSUIT of Suzann Ledbetter's fine novel.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 25, 2003

Sometimes you have to go backward to move on...

Summary

After the brutal murder of her husband, police officer Liz Rivas entered the witness protection program to save her young son. Today, twenty years later, she's Jenna MacArthur, shop owner in Pfister, Missouri. Jenna and her son, Sam, a rookie cop, have built new lives in a small town where everybody knows everybody's business. Or at least think they do.

Then a stranger arrives in Pfister, a man who remembers Liz Rivas. He is Paul Haggerty, a fellow cop from her past. There are memories here, sure...a fierce attraction. But is he a connection to her former life—or a threat to the life Jenna has sacrificed so much to build?