Janelle Watkins, former police officer, swore she wouldn't handle anymore child abduction cases when she left the job. Now that she's a private investigator, this shouldn't be a problem, right? Except when two clients beg for help with their missing children cases. Now Janelle finds herself back in her hometown, Greenville, a place where her own nightmares began. To make it worse, her old partner and also old flame, Ken Heinz, is now the town's sheriff. With the clock ticking for the children, and a Ken's own niece disappearing, the two of them must solve the mystery before it's too late.

Author Karen Sandler brings a gripping and dark tale to the pages with CLEAN BURN. This is her first foray into the mystery genre, but her seasoned writing lines the pages with ease. It's a fascinating tale, albeit one that is hard to read as a mother to small children. Seeing one of my fears put to the page, child abduction, was tough, but Sandler writes it with aplomb, sinking me at once into the story and out of my head.

Janelle Watkins is a one time police officer, now a private investigator. Her history is complicated. After a freak injury she left the precinct job. To say this character is flawed is to put it lightly. Her list of grievances is long, and we get to see, up close and personal, her own poorly developed coping mechanisms including self-harming by way of burning herself with match heads. All the way from her external crooked lope to her inner dialogue, she is overflowing with pain and self-loathing. But I can say that by the end of the story she seemed to have grown and matured into her own somewhat.

One of the most intriguing characters for me was the abductor herself, titled simply, Mama. Wow this one was twisted. Mental health issues, full blown pyromaniac, and killer of children, her own to be exact. When Janelle takes on a missing child case, she ends up in her dreaded hometown, and face to face with an old flame. There is plenty of tension in this story, but I think the better part of it involved the scenes with the children and Mama. Sandler writes a psychotic mental case adeptly, leaving me at times with skin-crawling chills.

I really enjoyed the story, and knowing that this is part of a series, I will be curious to see how Janelle turns out. Sandler has left a lot of room for Janelle to grow, and given her occupation, an endless amount of mysteries to come. I recommend CLEAN BURN for mystery and suspense readers, and I give high praise to the new Exhibit A book line. It's an imprint that should be watched.

Book Summary

Private investigator Janelle Watkins swore off investigating child abductions four years ago, when she left the San Francisco PD.

But when two clients beg for her help, one to find her missing 11-year-old son and the other to find a toddler who’s vanished, Janelle can’t say no. Even though it means returning to the scene of her nightmares – her hometown of Greenville.

Janelle enlists the aid of her ex-partner and ex-lover, Greenville County Sheriff Ken Heinz – but in the midst of their investigation, two other children are discovered missing and connected to Greenville.

Then Ken’s niece disappears on her way to school