This is quite the twisty thriller. It definitely delivers on its premise and I think it is one of those that if the blurb of the book sounds promising or interesting to you, then I suggest giving it a read.

- this review is several years behind its release (due to the many issues of 2020 when I received the eArc). But thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy of the book!

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

What an awesome first book to ME Brownings new Jo Wyatt Mystery series!
Colorado - Suicide? Murder? Crime-Detective serier!!
Cannot wait for what's to come,


A huge thank you to NetGalley, M. E. Browning and Crooked Lane Books for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

TW0 STARS I was expecting a lot more of this book based on the advanced publicity. Certainly not one that I enjoyed. More in the detective romance field than I thought. Certainly not my type of book.
Echo Valley, Colorado, is a place where the natural beauty of a stunning river valley meets a budding hipster urbanity. But when an internet stalker is revealed to be a cold-blooded killer in real life the peaceful community is rocked to its core.

I'm not a big reader of this genre, however, I enjoyed the story and the characters enough. I'm not sure I would read more of what this author has to offer as I did not enjoy the writing style

Shadow Ridge is the first in a series featuring detective Jo Wyatt. I tend to like crime drama/procedural series, so I was looking forward to finding a new one to follow. This one had potential, but it just didn't draw me in like I hoped. I struggled to connect with any of the characters, including Jo. Not that she's unlikable, I just didn't find her or the story particularly exciting or interesting. I don't know if it's because this is the first in the series and maybe the author was trying to introduce the setting and characters or maybe this story and main character just didn't work for me, but I struggled all the way through this book. The pacing felt stilted and the dialogue felt choppy more often than not, which again, could go back to me not connecting with the story. I glanced through what others had to say about this book., and it's plain to see that I'm in the minority here - more like the odd woman out, I suppose - but it is what it is. It's clear that this book has a following, but I'm not part of that audience.

Detective Jo Wyatt is called to investigate when the body of Tye Horton is found in his home. Everyone assumes it was suicide .. all except Jo who suspects it was murder.

Tye was the designer of a cutting-edge video game ... one that a lot of people were interested in. Quinn Kirkwood is the woman who reported the death. She, too, has caught the eye of someone for nefarious reasons.

This was not the first death related to this video game. A beta tester was killed in a car accident .. or was there something more to it? And now Quinn is receiving threatening notes and emails ... is she targeted to be next? Or is she a suspect?

While some are scoffing at Jo's suspicions, only her partner seem to have her back.

Wyatt is a talented, determined detective. The daughter of a retired policeman and the almost ex-wife of another cop, Jo has found she has to prove over and over again that she is as good as the boys in blue. The latest slap in the face is when her ex-to be is given the promotion that Jo deserved ,, and should have received.

This is a well-written mystery with superb character development. I enjoyed how the professional lives and personal lives are blended to give a full picture of the characters. It's action-packed with the suspense starting on the very first page and increasing until the very last page.

Many thanks to the author / Crooked Lane Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this mystery. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Jo Wyatt is a tough Detective in the Echo Valley police Department. Her dad and soon to be ex-husband are also both police officers.

Jo responds to a suicide. A man blows his brains out. Sounds like an open and shut case but Jo suspects foul play. She sets out to prove her theory even if it means butting heads with her soon to be ex, who is being promoted to sergeant. Jo starts to peel back the various parts of the crime to reveal something sinister. I love Jo Wyatt’s character. She is a strong female protagonist that has more to deal with than her case. All of the authors characters have flaws and redeeming qualities that bring these characters off the page.


I especially like how M.E. Browning’s law enforcement experience shines through in this book by adding complexity to Jo Wyatt’s character.

The author did a great job of hooking me in and getting me to turn the pages. She also did a good job of setting up the characters for future books. I enjoyed the first installment of the Jo Wyatt series and look forward to more.

Thank you netgalley and Crooked Lane Press for my digital copy.

“Detective Jo Wyatt stood at the edge of the doorway of the converted garage and scanned the scene for threats.”

M.E. Browning starts her latest novel Shadow Ridge at a crime scene. A place where both Browning and her protagonist are well-versed. Browning’s law enforcement background shines through this engaging police procedural.

Readers know they are in the hands of an expert, as Jo Wyatt catches the clues others miss. Putting her reputation on the line to investigate an event determined to be a suicide, Jo Wyatt’s strong sense of honor won’t let her stop chasing a killer, even at the expense of her own career.

Set in Echo Valley, Colorado, the environment often works against Detective Wyatt. Snow and ice make the challenges Jo Wyatt faces even greater. I love when a writer gives the physical world an active role in events, and Browning does a fantastic job of painting pictures of the harsh climate.

Along with dynamic action and fascinating police procedures, Browning also provides Jo Wyatt with personal challenges.

One of my favorite aspects of her personality is that she is both a no-nonsense cop who can stomach a crime scene and takes no crap from anyone, while simultaneously showing empathy and compassion for the people she has promised to serve and protect.

The first of a series, Shadow Ridge adds another great protagonist to the crime fiction scene. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next one.

I like Jo Wyatt most of the time. This new series sees her at a pretty tough time in her life. She's passed up for promotion and getting divorced....from the person who got her promotion. She's a female detective on a force of backward men. Apparently, the part of Colorado she is in is a few decades behind. Not much like the parts of Colorado I'm more familiar with, I guess.

Jo responds to a suicide. Man in a chair blew his brains out. Pretty ugly, but not as open and shut as others think. Jo acts extremely tough but she falls for that old trap of letting herself get harassed because she doesn't want to make trouble and upset the boys' club. Because if you complain you are just reinforcing why women don't belong here in the first place. Does that still fly?

This is the first of a series. We saw Jo grow in this one so I'm hoping we will see more in future installments. Part of that growth came from her experience with Quinn, woman who found the victim and target of harassment. This is why it is so important for female characters to interact, just as much as it is for actual women! The growth doesn't make sense without it. I think it was pretty clear who the villain was about halfway through the story. Not having a "gotcha" moment didn't ruin the ending, though. I prefer the unraveling of a story in a way that makes sense rather than the dependence on a "twist".

Overall, I'd like to read more about Jo. So many little paths to take on her journey.

Shadow Ridge is the first book in a new police procedural series by M.E. Browning. Released 6th Oct 2020 by Crooked Lane, it's 296 pages (print version) and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
This is a well written modern procedural with an ensemble cast. Detective Jo Wyatt is a strong and intelligent female with a surprisingly balanced sense of self worth and confidence considering the casual sexism she endures from neanderthals on and off the job. Her team includes a cross section of small town investigative personnel. The story revolves around the apparent suicide of a local software games developer and the statistically unlikely number of deaths of people in his gaming orbit.

The characters are well rendered, three dimensional and believable for the most part. The disparate plot threads intertwine more closely as the book progresses until they merge about 3/4ths of the way through. One of the biggest standouts for me with this book was the expert way the author managed to explore perception. Motivation from one character's perspective which seems perfectly logical to -them- may not appear so to other characters and the author's ability to highlight both viewpoints (for example Jo vs. Quinn) was exemplary.

The clues are found and sifted and the denouement is satisfying and well written I did see it coming, but it was satisfying nonetheless. TI'm looking forward to more adventures for Jo and co.

Four stars. Very well done.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Squint’s eyebrow shot up, and Dr. Ingerslebgen’s brows scrunched. Funny how one piece of anatomy could go in two different directions and still convey the same WTF expression.
Micki Browning, Shadow Ridge, Kindle Loc. 3835

Echo Valley, Colorado, is a place where the natural beauty of a stunning river valley meets a budding hipster urbanity. But when an internet stalker is revealed to be a cold-blooded killer in real life the peaceful community is rocked to its core.

It should have been an open-and-shut case: the suicide of Tye Horton, the designer of a cutting-edge video game. But Detective Jo Wyatt is immediately suspicious of Quinn Kirkwood, who reported the death. When Quinn reveals an internet stalker is terrorizing her, Jo is skeptical. Doubts aside, she delves into the claim and uncovers a link that ties Quinn to a small group of beta-testers who had worked with Horton. When a second member of the group dies in a car accident, Jo's investigation leads her to the father of a young man who had killed himself a year earlier. But there's more to this case than a suicide, and as Jo unearths the layers, a more sinister pattern begins to emerge--one driven by desperation, shame, and a single-minded drive for revenge.

As Jo closes in, she edges ever closer to the shattering truth--and a deadly showdown that will put her to the ultimate test.
Amazon.com

Micki Browning, former president of the SinC Guppy chapter and retired police captain after serving twenty-two years, writes under the name M. E. Browning. Shadow Ridge, the first Jo Wyatt mystery, was released yesterday. Jo is a police detective who was recently passed over for promotion. Her successful competitor? Her husband, soon-to-be—ex.

In Shadow Ridge, Micki shows how Jo’s personal and professional relationships impact each other, and sometimes in surprising ways. As a female professional in a male-dominated field, the presumptions of her peers and superiors get in the way of doing her job, which she does extremely well, catching clues others have missed. And it’s not because she is female, it’s because of her persistence, her loyalty to the victims, and her vow to serve and protect, even when those very people tick her off and display attitude.

Shadow Ridge is a page-turner, and the first in what I think will be a very long series. Please welcome Micki Browning back to WWK. E. B. Davis

I admit it. I’ve never heard of mood DVDs. They really are real? Really? What types of moods do they evoke?
They are real! Imagine reclining in your living room and basking in the snap and pop of burning wood as your television instantly becomes the fireplace you don’t have—or if you’re outdoorsy, consider a campfire. In the doldrums of summer, you can swap fire for aquarium fish. Just want to chill? Your screen can morph into that lava lamp you threw away about five decades ago.

When I looked up RP, the acronym stood for Receive Pronunciation. Is that right? Are those who call in the crime referred to as RPs?
RP stands for reporting party. Radio transmissions should always be as brief as possible and to accomplish that, cops draw upon a whole host of acronyms. Radio 10-codes, however, are falling out of favor as agencies move towards “plainspeak” (which is exactly what it sounds like). Plainspeak reduces confusion in situations involving more than one agency as not everyone uses the same codes. Regardless, airtime is valuable.

Student Quinn is the RP. Why is she evasive with Jo?
Quinn hasn’t always been on the right side of the law. She has trust issues.

On your website, you said that Echo Valley isn’t a real town in Colorado. Have you lived somewhere similar?
I have! I lived in Durango, which is an amazing place that’s tucked in the southwest corner of the state and is the inspiration for Echo Valley. I like to joke if you erase about 50 years, halve the population, and squint, you’ll see Echo Valley.

Jo has only worked on two homicide cases in her twelve years in the force. Is Echo Valley so small that the detectives have to do their own CSI processing? Do small town detectives get training on how to do all that?
Forensics is covered in the police academy and every officer learns how to process a crime scene. How much they actually process as a patrol officer depends on the size and resources of the agency. For example, the agency I served in California had sworn CSI officers who processed crime scenes, plus two lab techs who handled the major calls and processed nearly all the agency’s evidence in their department lab. The Echo Valley Police Department fields about three officers per shift. That requires officers to be fairly self-sufficient. Officers conduct their own basic crime scene investigation—photos and fingerprinting, mostly—and depending on the crime, may not even request a detective for assistance. On more serious calls, detectives will respond. Detectives receive advanced CSI training and have additional equipment that patrol officers don’t carry. Colorado agencies can request assistance from the Colorado Bureau of Investigations for major incidents. As a state agency, it has regional offices and considerably more resources and expertise, plus it operates the state crime lab. Finally, if an agency finds itself dealing with a terrorist or plane crash, the feds will have jurisdiction and the initial local agency will assist.

Why does Jo need a search warrant? Doesn’t the scene of a crime automatically give them authority to search and process?
There are entire books written about search and seizure, so this is going to be a very down and dirty explanation. The 4th Amendment protects people from unreasonable search and seizures. At its most basic, it requires officers to get a warrant from the court before they have the authority to search. That said, there are numerous exceptions: consent searches, vehicle searches, inventory searches, and searches incident to arrest to name a few. Responding to a murder scene gives officers authority to enter the scene, render aid if appropriate, and check for additional victims or suspects. But once it’s obvious that the scene is stable, it’s time to get a warrant. When in doubt it’s always advisable to get a warrant. Without one, a defense attorney may file a motion to suppress and if the challenge prevails, the evidence may be deemed inadmissible. (The court case that covers murder scenes is Mincey v. Arizona.)

Jo’s husband, and soon-to-be ex, Cameron, got promoted to sergeant over Jo. My first thought after Squint MacAllister enters the scene is—why hasn’t he been promoted to sergeant? He was Jo’s training officer, older, more experienced than either Jo or Cameron.
Echo Valley, like most agencies, requires a person to test for a promotional position, and Squint never has. Simply put, he doesn’t want the job and he’s very happy as an investigator. For the record? He’d be a great supervisor.

Dakota Kaplan is Jo’s best friend. She means well when she tells a reporter about how Jo was passed over for promotion, but...in the long-run, is she more of a detriment to Jo than an asset?
One of the things I wanted to do in this story was explore the complexities of relationships: marriages, parental, friendships, and partners. Dakota meant well, but her actions crossed a line. Jo put her on notice. What happens now is up to Dakota.

Why are prison tattoos always blue?
Prison tattoos usually fall into the greenish-blue hues because of the materials used to make the ink. It is illegal to give or get a tattoo in prison, and the items used to create tattoos are considered contraband.

What does “Bogart it” mean?
It’s a slang term that means to selfishly take or keep something—especially something meant to be shared among people who know each other.

I was amazed to find out that the whole gaming industry was steeped in sexism. Please explain the history for our readers.

The notion that gaming is an overwhelmingly male pastime isn’t true; nearly half of all gamers are female. Game designers, however, still skew overwhelmingly male. Early in the development of the industry, several gaming tropes evolved in regards to female characters. They were often cast in the role of damsel in distress, garbed in skimpy outfits, and possessed physiques that highlighted sexuality over intelligence. In comparison, women designers were more likely than their male counterparts to focus on creating games that had more cooperative storylines and characters that were more diverse in regards to ethnicity and sexual orientation. In 2014, a controversy erupted over sexism and progressiveness in the industry that resulted in an online harassment campaign targeting women gamers (and to a lesser extent, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community). The viciousness of the hate mobs prompted industry leaders to tackle online harassment, but sadly, that battle has yet to be won.

Who is Aiden? Why isn’t Jo with him?
Aiden and Jo grew up together and have an enduring bond. While they may have come close, they never took that final step to become lovers despite their love for each other. Neither wanted to risk the friendship for a different type of relationship that might not last. Fear? Probably.

How old is Quinn? She seems wise beyond her years.
Quinn has a lot of street smarts. She’s in her last year of college, but she got a late start as she dealt with putting her life back together. She’s just shy of twenty-five.

Are Australian cattle dogs used to help ranch? What is a blue Australian cattle dog?
Australian cattle dogs are medium-sized herding dogs that are tough, muscular, and smart—which makes them popular ranch dogs. They can be pretty territorial, so if you see one in the back of a truck, best walk on by…. Blue refers to the color of their coat which is a moody gray-blue.

Why did Jo agree to pin the sergeant’s badge on Cameron during the ceremony? I really hated that.
That moment was more about Jo than Cameron. She loved the man enough to marry him, and she’s going to continue to work with him on the department. Perhaps it was an olive branch—but who was extending it to whom? After all, Jo agreed to participate in the badge ceremony, but Cameron asked her first.

After the ceremony, Jo ends up choosing the cop bar to have a drink with Dakota. Why didn’t she choose a noncop shop?
There are essentially three watering holes in Echo Valley—four if you count the Elks Lodge. Cowboys drink Coors at the Hitching Post, the bikers slake their thirst at Valhalla, and the cops? They relax at Finnegan’s Irish Pub. And honestly, when one of the choices is an Irish pub, why would you go anywhere else? Or maybe that’s just the author talking.

What is sinsemilla? Is it legal in Colorado?
Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012 for adults 21 years and older. They can sell, possess, or transport up to an ounce, but consumption still must occur behind closed doors (or specific smoking establishments). You can even have it delivered to your home. Sinsemilla describes buds without seeds—which purportedly makes the marijuana more potent.

Do firefighters often mess up evidence? Can they do better or is it the nature of their job?
Cops and firefighters have a long history of busting each other’s chops. They call us blue canaries; we call them evidence destruction teams. Dragging hoses across a crime scene and dousing it with water destroys a lot of evidence, but letting something burn to the ground isn’t that great of an option either. When prioritizing a response, safety is the primary concern, evidence will always be secondary.

What does a “Jar Jar Binks” of games mean?
Jar Jar Binks was an annoying character in the Star Wars saga. Quinn compares a character in a video game her friend designed to Binks as a way to say the character was not a fan favorite.

What does doxing, trolling, spoofing, and SWATting people mean?
Email spoofing is when the information in the From section in the header is falsified and hides the origin of the person who actually sent it. Spammers do it all the time, but so do harassers who wish to remain anonymous.

Trolling is when a person seeks to become a pest of murder-hornet magnitude. We’ve all heard of internet trolls. This is the person who hijacks a social media thread and starts by playing the role of a devil’s advocate to indicate all the ways a post is wrong, and then quickly escalates into posting racist, sexist, or threatening comments.

Doxing is the acquisition of someone else’s personal information and then making it publicly available. This includes home and email addresses, phone numbers, employment locations, credit card information, and more. It’ a way for an abuser to strip a person of their privacy and provides anyone with a grudge the ability to target the person either online or off.

Armed with doxxed information, a harasser can escalate yet again and initiate a fake emergency requiring a SWAT response. Depending on the trumped-up hoax, officers may respond expecting to be greeted by a heavily armed suspect while the unsuspecting victim is unaware of the dangerous situation unfolding all around her.

Does insulin have an aroma of Band-Aids?
Insulin smells slightly different to everyone, but the most popular description likens it to adhesive bandages, which may stem from a compound called phenol that is used to stabilize and disinfect insulin.

When did suicide become a verb as in suicided? Is that cop-speak?
In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the entry for suicide shows the word can be used as a noun, adjective, or verb. I first encountered its usage as a verb while in policing. I was a hostage negotiator, and as such I had a lot of behavioral and mental health training. I suspect it is more commonly used as a verb in clinical and medical circles.

Tell me that in one moment of weakness, Jo slept with Cameron, not that she’s still in love with him?
You can rest easy. That ship has sailed.

What’s next for Jo?
Thank you for asking! Jo is called out to investigate a missing child, but as she digs into the fractured family life, she unearths a trove of secrets and half-lies that paints a different picture of the two parents she’s known since high school.

This story is a little grittier than my usual fare. I am glad I did not let the foul language stop me from reading the story. It kept me guessing and turning the pages. Great setup for future tales. I look forward to reading the next one in this terrific new series.

This is a terrific first installment in what looks to be a great series! Jo Wyatt is dealing with the ghosts of her father's disdain, a pending divorce, and being a female on a small town police force. Then comes a supposed suicide, a woman being cyber stalked, Gamergate, and sexual harassment. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the small town and the more urban related tech challenges. I liked how Jo fought for herself but was equally able to admit when she was wrong or didn't know something. I also really enjoyed the younger character, Quinn, and hope she pops up in future books. I look forward to continuing to follow this series.

M.E. Browning offers outstanding characterization in this complex police procedural. The plot is taught and character driven, giving readers something solid to hang on to throughout the course of the narrative. Browning impeccably sets the stage with an atmospheric writing style that is woven throughout the story. Loved it. 4 stars

Thank you to #NetGalley and #CrookedLaneBooks for this ARC of #ShadowRidge which was read and reviewed voluntarily by @wayward_readers.

Review to be shared immediately at:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3561889310

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This book has everything you could possibly want in a police procedural mystery. Appealing, life-like characters. Snappy dialogue. A plot as twisty as the icy Rocky Mountain roads, and as dangerous, too: one slip, one wrong turn, and you might find yourself tumbling over a sheer cliff, plummeting toward death . . .

That’s a bit of an exaggeration. You won’t die from reading this book. But you’ll feel the increasing danger and wonder whether the characters will survive to the last page.

I’ll be honest. It took me a while to warm to Detective Jo Wyatt and for a while, I was afraid this would put me off the entire book.

For the first few chapters, I found her initial suspicious and (at points) hostile attitude toward Quinn off-putting. She’s a detective doing a difficult job amid her own heartbreak and disappointments. I sympathized with that. At the same time, it was hard for me, someone outside the police force, to understand why her first reaction to everyone is suspicion.

But by half-way through the book, I grew to like her. I understood that she is policing in Echo Valley, her hometown. That comes with advantages–she’s familiar with the people–and major disadvantages–she’s expected to ignore certain crimes because of the perpetrator’s identity. Once that clicked into place for me, so did Jo’s character.

All the characters are complicated people. Even the minor characters, such as Jo’s father, are developed. Browning has the ability to craft uncannily-life-like characters who drive the story with a building momentum. This gives Shadow Ridge an energy that is sometimes missing in more paint-by-numbers procedurals.

Browning makes great use of her own background in law enforcement. There are some tantalizing details about cop habits and behavior. The book feels like the author knows how homicide investigations work, and has dealt with the frustrations and fears, unknowns and unknowable aspects of any unnatural death. It struck me that Browning isn’t only concerned with the detective catching the bad guys, as is standard for police procedurals. She’s also concerned with the societal responsibility of a cop to see people as people.

I believe this is the first in a series. With such rich, deep characters and an intriguing setting, there’s plenty of material for future stories. I enjoyed Shadow Ridge a great deal and recommend it for all police procedural and mystery lovers.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

This review will be published on my blog on October 9, 2020.

A fascinating mystery with a dedicated female detective who will not close the case until she is satisfied that justice has prevailed. Detective Jo Wyatt is called to what looks like a suicide, but things just don’t add up. Friends of the deceased are involved in online gaming, including Quinn Kirkwood who discovered the body. Jo doesn’t know whether to believe Quinn as she has a surly attitude against cops, especially Jo. When Quinn starts receiving threats and other gamers are targeted, can Jo solve the case and keep Quinn safe? When the case seems to involve those in local government, her mentor Detective Jessup “Squint” MacAllister may be the only one in the department that has her back. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)

I enjoyed Shadow Ridge by M.E. Browning. I was excited to read this story because I am a fan of the authors other books and I knew I would love this one too. I love a good mystery and this story held my attention throughout the entire book and I was still guessing about what would happen at the end. I enjoyed the setting, I enjoyed the characters, and I enjoyed the plot. Shadow Ridge is well written and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for their next good read or who has never read this author before.

I liked the character of Jo Wyatt, a female officer on a police force filled with testosterone. It’s an uphill battle for Jo at all times and she only has a few folks in her corner. One would have thought her previous successes would have garnered at least some grudging respect, but apart from her partner Squint and her soon to be ex-husband Cameron, Jo has no other champions.

I also enjoyed the character of Quinn. At times, she is both a victim and a suspect and her candor and lack of a filter livens up the book.

It is the plot where I begin to struggle. The overall idea is a good one, and author M. E. Browning weaves a tale that encompasses the Internet, gaming, and the industry that encourages people to fill their free hours with their noses pointed at phones and computers. There are times, though, that the clues crop with all the finesse of a sledgehammer on fine china. I also look for realism in a book, and want to believe that it is possible for whoever the murderer turns out to be to actually be able to kill another person. When that doesn’t occur, I begin to question the foundations of the book itself.

To recap, interesting characters with enough background and emotions to keep me interested, coupled with a decent plot that came together well. Unfortunately, pinning the title of murderer on someone without being able to convince me hurts the entire effort. I am sure that Ms. Browning’s fans will love this book. For me, this is a solid three stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.

Echo Valley, Colorado is a beautiful small town where homicide has only disturbed the serenity found there twice in the twelve years since Detective Jo Wyatt has been on the force. That's about to change.

Called to investigate when a person performing a welfare check on her college classmate finds him dead, Detective Wyatt and Officer Cameron Finch find Tye Horton, 22, the victim of an apparent suicide. It looks cut and dried, but Wyatt's instincts lead her to think there's more to this than meets the eye. Her investigation will bear that out in spades.

The person who called in the report, Quinn Kirkwood, had been working on a project with the victim and became concerned when he didn't show up for class. Quinn is a snarky young woman who doesn't like to answer questions or let people get too close to her. She's got her reasons to be defensive and on guard, but Jo also thinks she knows more about Tye's death than she's telling. When Quinn tells her that she has been getting threats via online and texts, Jo is hesitant to believe her, but research shows that she might be telling the truth. Is there a connection between someone stalking Quinn and Tye's death?

Jo learns that Tye invented a video game and the beta-testers of that game were Derrik Walsenberg (son of the DA) who died by suicide last year, Quinn, and Ronny Buck. With two of the four involved with the game dead, and one being stalked, Jo is convinced that this is more than coincidence. The chief wants her to shut the investigation down, but her partner, senior detective Jessup (Squint) MacAllister believes she's on to something and offers his full support. Together they follow the leads to an unexpected conclusion.

This is an impressive start to a new series. Browning's characters are rich and full, each with flaws and redeeming qualities that bring them to life. The story line is well-plotted, the writing crisp and well-paced. Jo Wyatt is a wonderfully relatable protagonist who is dealing with so much more than just her caseload. Her father, retired from Echo Valley's PD, always seems to have something to say about how she handles her cases and her soon to be ex-husband, Officer Cameron Finch, is being promoted to sargeant, even though Jo, who also applied for the position, has far more experience and commendations. The good old boy network is in full arrogant display throughout the book, but in an integrative way that promotes the storyline.

Engaging from the start, and with twists and surprises throughout, this is a very good read. I look forward to reading future books in this series!

My thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for allowing me to read a copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions stated here are my own.