FBI Special Agent Tara Rushing has been sent to a rural area in Texas to investigate the disappearance of a prominent female politician. The woman's body is soon found in a deeply wooded area, and has been murdered in a particularly gruesome and heinous way. The FBI and the local Sheriff's department partner to solve the crime, although the partnership is uneasy and with some petty backstabbing by the Sheriff and his deputy along the way. While the investigation is proceeding, another woman's body shows up in the area, then another, leading Tara to believe there is a serial murderer behind the deaths. The local sheriff is doing his best to impede the FBI's investigation and has his own suspect already picked out - security expert Liam Wolfe.

Liam Wolfe's security business is in a sprawling, wooded compound located conveniently near where all the bodies have been dumped. Being an ex-Marine, he and his mostly former military employees have all the necessary kinds of killing talents that the murders are exhibiting. This puts him and his men up as prime suspects. Tara's attraction to Liam is growing, and after he is eliminated as a suspect, he and his security team come to the aid of the task force that has been established to handle the investigation. The crime scene evidence is sent to the Delphi Center for processing and evaluation. Tara spends a good deal of time at the Delphi Center, giving the reader some time to catch up with previous characters in the series.

The first thing to be noted by any book by Laura Griffith is the attention to detail, and the amount of research she has done in order to bring the daily world of an FBI investigation alive for the reader. Her FBI agents and the Delphi Center crime scene technicians are real people who blend a personal life in with their investigations, and even love. Nothing is ever obvious, and the investigation plays out just as a real investigation would with all the twists and turns, and sometimes dead ends. As always with a book in the Tracers series, SHADOW FALL seamlessly blends a steamy romance with a fast-paced, exciting investigation which as always, ends with a breathtaking climax.

SHADOW FALL is the latest entry in Laura Griffith's excellent Tracers series, and is proof positive that this series is not running out of steam anytime soon. If anything, this series is improving over time and SHADOW FALL is on the better side of the series entries. This is a very good series, and is highly recommended. Although there is mention of some of the leads in previous books of the Tracers series, SHADOW FALL can easily be read as a standalone.

Book Summary

In the ninth romantic suspense novel in the New York Times bestselling Tracers series, author Laura Griffin brings back her elite cadre of forensic experts as they hunt down the most brutal serial killer yet. Special Agent Tara Rushing arrives at a grisly murder scene and quickly discovers she’s got a serial killer on her hands.

The killer is meticulous, making sure to wipe up even the smallest traces of evidence…but the Delphi Center experts are on the case. The local sheriff has a suspect all picked out—ex-Marine and current security expert Liam Wolfe.

Despite all her digging, Tara knows very little about Liam when she shows up at his sprawling Texas compound, which serves as headquarters for Wolfe Security, and she’s surprised by her intense physical reaction to him. As she and Liam grow closer, Tara finds herself depending on his skills and expertise to help her track a killer. But when another body turns up, Tara must decide if she can trust the man who’s quickly stealing her heart.