Major Spoiler warning: If you have not read the first two books in this series featuring Dr. Kate Morrison and Sergeant Andy Wyles stop reading this review and grab a copy of Trigger and Pathogen. Both are terrific reads but events in the first two books impact events in Troop 18.

Troop 18 picks up the story forty-six days after the conclusion to Pathogen. We know how many days it’s been because Andy is keeping track, struggling to cope knowing she can’t be there to protect Kate, unsure if she will ever get the chance to be with the woman she loves.
She is asked to work with a group of RCMP cadets who are unlike any troop the training centre in Regina has dealt with in the past. Andy agrees to set up a boot camp in the interior of British Columbia so she can observe the troop and help her former instructors determine what the sixteen remaining cadets are hiding. What she doesn’t know is that the assigned medic for the team will soon be replaced by the newest member of E-division, Dr. Kate Morrison.

I love this author's fluid writing style. Scenes are easy to visualize and her dialogue brings her characters to life. We learn more about Andy in this novel thanks to moments shared with her parents, her supportive friend Kurtz and even her old instructors from her days in training at Depot. Seeing the vulnerable side to our stoic Sergeant Wyles makes the time she eventually gets to spend with Kate all the more meaningful.

This novel doesn’t have the same thriller feel as Trigger or Pathogen but the pacing is solid and the mystery is as challenging as the sixteen cadets are close-mouthed. The biggest struggle I had was keeping track of the many cadets and their individual quirks and identifiers. There were clues scattered about along with enough suspicious activity to keep me guessing until the end. The mystery is a good one, but in Troop 18, the mystery takes a back seat to the ongoing romance between Andy and Kate.

After leaving her readers in relationship limbo at the end of the second novel in this series, Webb rewards us with a beautifully written scene of reconciliation that is both touching and poignant. I don’t know when I have read a more honest and endearing conversation between two women in love. It’s a beautiful thing and brings this series to what feels like a natural conclusion. There are still crimes to solve and new mysteries to unravel but there is a sense of finality with Troop 18. If this is the last time we see Andy and Kate in action then bravo to Ms. Webb for giving us a series to remember.

4.5 stars

eARC received with thanks from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley for review.