"intriguing police procedural romance"

New Orleans Detective Charlotte "Charlie" LeBlanc joined the force a little over five years ago when an unknown assailant got away with murdering her sister Emily. The killer remains at lodge with no clues forthcoming. Her partner Vince Kossik calls Charlie while she leaves yellow M&Ms at Emily gravesite as she always has on her late sister's birthday. A homicide similar to the strangulation death of Emily has occurred.

The victim Francesca Hill was to marry wealthy realtor J.P. Stratton. The crime scene points to someone who knew the victim committed a planned non-passionate murder. The two detectives soon look at who in the wedding party had a motivation to kill Francesca. The evidence points towards two of Stratton's adult children, Cole and Holly, as each had a public dispute with the deceased. Complicating the case, Charlie is attracted by the prime suspect Cole, who also might have killed her sister.

BLACK SILK is an intriguing police procedural romance with the added spin of having the lead detective and the prime suspect falling in love. The story line is action-packed, but in many ways driven by the demons that haunt Charlie who chides herself for not protecting her sibling and for failing to uncover the identity of her killer. A secondary romantic subplot augments this exhilarating romantic suspense in which fans will wonder if Cole is a killer, a lover, or both.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted March 12, 2006

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Summary

The victim was young, lovely and seduced by the wrong man...

Mere hours before her wedding the fiancee of real estate mogul JP Stratton is found strangled in her penthouse. New Orleans homicide detective Charlotte "Charlie" Le Blanc views the crime scene, finding a black silk stocking draped casually beside the body—a chilling calling card from the killer.

The dramatic clue leads Charlie to a world of privilege and wealth, and before long she singles out a suspect whose identity creates a furor in the city: Cole Stratton, JP's estranged son. But what she doesn't know is that Cole has been set up, and while she sets out to prove his guilt a real killer is on the loose—a man who now has Charlie in his sights, a man with yet another black silk stocking.