Traces of Guilt by Dee Henderson | Book Review

★★★★★

5 Stars | Adult | Fiction | Christian | Mystery | Suspense | Clean | Romance

More than just a cold case

A detective is helping set up a new task force to work on unsolved crimes throughout the state of Illinois. The first stop is Carin County with a couple of missing-persons cases. As the detective works with the local sheriff studying old evidence, they find surprising connections and potential new leads.

When I started reading, I thought I had accidentally grabbed a book in the middle of a series because the two characters we meet in chapter one know each other so well already and then start mentioning quite a few other characters we would meet later in the story. I did a little quick research, and the author does include some characters from her previous standalone books in this one. As this is my first book by this author, I didn’t feel like I lost anything by not having read these character’s standalone stories, and I could easily read them later if I wanted to know more about them. Having said that, I did have to write down all the characters mentioned in the first chapter and how they were all connected. Once I did that, it wasn’t confusing anymore.

This was a clean read, and I don’t recall seeing any language at all. As a crime novel, the story does touch upon a subject that might upset some individuals who were victims as children, but it doesn’t dig into it or give any details.

This book’s blurb mentions a detective coming to work a couple of cold cases, but the readers get dropped into a lot more than just those investigations. There are several side stories added to the main one and the author does an amazing job with the continuity and keeping it all together.
 
There was one error in the story regarding something being buried that somehow wasn’t disturbed by either animals or washed out by rains, though it should have been considering the depth and amount of time it had been buried, and though this is entirely inaccurate, the rest of the story was so well put together that I was able to move past it without issue.

The blurb also gives the impression the book leans more towards romance while the characters work to solve the cases in the background, but that wasn’t how it turned out. The author focuses on the authorities working through the evidence, trying to determine new leads with the occasional show of romantic interest between the characters. It was enjoyable watching the mature interactions and I found myself smiling at them as the characters expressed their attraction for each other. This book is a great example of what a strong male and strong female should look like and behave as mature individuals.

Though some would consider this novel slow, I haven’t read a book with so many moving parts this well put together in quite some time while also showing what it's really like trying to solve a crime. It wasn’t rushed or too long. The author wrote until the story had reached its end and it was beautifully executed. I truly enjoyed this book and immediately added the next book, Threads of Suspicion, to my list to purchase.

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