Very good mystery, with very good twist. The romance part was okay. I would like to see the romance development better

I actually really enjoyed this book-- at first I thought that there was rather a lot going on, but all the strands pull together nicely, and I really liked the brooding nature of the characters

Standing in the Shadows is the second of the Coyote Springs novels by Ken Casper. It's a standalone novel and is what I would call a murder mystery cowboy romance. Yep. It's got murder, cowboys, cattle rustlers, drunks, abusive husbands and second chance romance. It's well written and fairly short at 216 pages. Some of the romance dialogue had me rolling my eyes, there's a fair bit of bosom heaving and moaning, but it is a romance, and perhaps I'm being a trifle unfair.

No real surprises and no disappointment. It follows through and delivers an enjoyably diverting read. The characters are well developed (if predictable), and the plotting is solid. The mystery was well thought out and followed 'the rules'. It's mostly clean with no explicit sex scenes (just implied). The romance part is sweet and wholesome, without a ton of draaaaama which I really appreciated. I didn't feel like I wanted to reach into the book and smack any of the characters for being an idiot, or at least not uncontrollably so.

Definitely worth a read for die-hard cowboy romance fans.

Three and a half stars.

I was given an ARC of this book. Standing in the shadows had just the right amount of Romance and definitely had the suspense I look for in books I read. Just when I thought I had it all figured out something else was thrown in to drive the reader away from who the real killer was. At first I thought it was starting off slow but you almost needed the detail in the beginning because I think that is what helped draw the reader to many different suspects and conclusions. Definitely and edge of your seat kind of read.

For a mystery, was pretty average in that I couldn't guess the ending. But it seriously lacked in romance nor thoroughly developed the characters of Marcie and Tucker.

Received an ARC for my fair review for netgalley. I did enjoy it, however I have to admit that for a suspense novel it was not really fireworks exciting. But I was still intrigued wanted to know who did it.