I’ve read this series from the very beginning, all the way back to the prequel novella, Rock Point. (But don’t read Rock Point first. It makes more sense if you start with Saint’s Gate and meet ALL the characters. Not that you need to read ALL of the previous books to enjoy this one, but this entry in particular deals with so many previous threads (and people) that it helps a lot if you’ve read at least some of the earlier books.)

In this mystery series, the detectives are FBI Agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan, even though they find themselves working apart as often as they work together. Emma is an art specialist, and Colin, at least up until now, has usually worked alone on deep-cover assignments.

They are also originally from neighboring small towns on the Maine coast. But while they grew up a few short miles apart, they didn’t meet until an assignment threw them together. In the even smaller world of coastal Maine small towns, they knew of each other’s families, but just never met.

So as they count down the final days to their wedding in Emma’s home town of Heron’s Cove, there are plenty of intrusions from friends, family and old cases to keep everyone on their toes to the end.

Colin’s family are law enforcement in their little town, but Emma’s family are world-famous art detectives. And this time around it’s Emma’s family and their connections that cause all the trouble, as well as solve the mystery.

It all begins when a retired FBI Agent shows up in Emma’s Boston office. Gordy Wheelock is on a fishing expedition, looking for something to make him feel relevant a year after his sudden retirement. While Emma isn’t hooked enough to give Gordy any information, she is concerned enough to connect the dots and figure out that there is something going on that there shouldn’t be.

Whatever Gordy thinks he’s involved in, it ties into his last, unsolved case. And it also ties into the seemingly accidental death of an art expert and to Emma’s family’s business. There are too many loose threads. They all tie into something, but Emma isn’t quite sure what.

But as she investigates, and waits for Colin to make it back from his undercover assignment, she learns that at least some of her family are plotting more than just her wedding. And that someone is working, either for her or against her, to figure out not just whodunit but exactly what they done, before she does.

And Gordy Wheelock gets tripped up by his lies.

Escape Rating B+: I read this one on a plane, and completely lost track of where I was or just how much turbulence we hit. I got a copy of this last year when it came out, but for some reason lost track of it at the time. Now that the next book in the series, Thief’s Mark, is due out, it felt like time to pick this back up. And I’m glad I did.

Like so many mystery series, a big part of what makes Sharpe and Donovan isn’t due to Sharpe and Donovan, but rather to the group of people who surround them, and occasionally (or not so occasionally) help and/or hinder them in their investigations. They are smart and interesting people to follow, and they surround themselves with equally smart and interesting people. And as usual, while the wedding and the investigation are proceeding, some of those people have separate crises of their very own to add to the mix.

As families do. Because that’s what these people have become to each other, family.

The case is really all about Gordy Wheelock’s last hurrah. He made a hell of a mistake before he retired, and it’s cost him. Perhaps not enough.

But part of what Emma is investigating is cooked up by her grandfather and her frenemy Oliver York. Wendell Sharpe and Oliver are on the trail of someone who is stealing ancient mosaics and getting them onto the market with fake provenance. Basically, someone is money laundering, with mosaics substituting for money. The comparison is to “conflict diamonds” because these ancient artifacts are being expropriated from places where they shouldn’t and putting the money into the hands of people who underwrite terrorism.

But Wendell and Oliver are playing a dangerous game, particularly since they, as well as Gordy, leave Emma and the FBI out of their loop. It’s a misstep that will result in more bodies, more disruption, and less trust. Not a good combination. But it is a fascinating one.

In the end, the criminals do get unmasked, and Emma and Colin manage to get married. I am very happy to say, however, that this is not the end of their adventures. Thief’s Mark is coming in August. After all, Emma and Colin could not possibly have expected to have an uninterrupted honeymoon, could they?

This book is actually part of a series, and one that I think you really need to read the preceding books to truly appreciate. Unfortunately, I have not read the previous books in the series, so I was left without much of a background into the characters that were central to the story.

Because I joined the characters mid-series, there wasn’t as much character development provided. All of the relationships were already established, and while there was some background given, I still felt like I was missing key pieces. This is especially true about Emma and Colin and their relationship.

I was approximately half-way through the book when I realized there was not going to be a lot of action. With a book about two FBI agents, I expected it to be fast paced and full of action, but it was more meditative. There wasn’t really even a case until the last 20%, just a lot of questions about a retired FBI agent’s questions and motives.

All that being said, I did enjoy the story, though I usually tend to prefer something a little more fast paced. I think if I had read the books in the series leading up to this one, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

Liar's Key is another Sharpe and Donovan novel that follows the same great writing as the others before it. I enjoyed reading the adventures of Emma Sharpe and following her through her next adventure. This one bring her from Boston to Maine and then Ireland, and I loved reading about the landscapes of those different places. The plot draws in Emma's fiance, Colin Donovan, and I enjoyed their connection and struggles of working together but sometimes coming from different perspectives. Although this book can stand on its own, it might be helpful to have read the other Sharpe and Donovan books so that the characters and their relationships are more familiar to you. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy general mystery and mystery series books, much like Nora Roberts and Sandra Brown.

I made it halfway through and couldn't finish. There were way too many characters to keep track of, and by halfway through I still couldn't figure out what the plot was supposed to be.

I'm not sure if this book was different from past in the series, but even with the travel to Ireland - one of my favorite book locations - and enjoying other Donovan stories, I struggled to engage with it. The writing and character interactions seemed short and choppy n some areas, long and repetitive in others, but the flow was off. Since I've enjoyed Carla Neggers before, maybe this was just a case of wrong book, wrong kid, wrong time.