Blood on Copperhead Trail-Paula Graves

Blood on Copperhead Trail Paula Graves Harlequin Intrigue, Jan 21 2014, $5.50 ISBN: 9780373697403 Ridge County Public Integrity Officer Laney Hanvey is assigned to investigate how deep the corruption within the Bitterwood Police Department is after the late former Chief of Detectives Rayburn was exposed for being on the payroll of Wayne Cortland. Part of her inquiry is to recommend whether BPD be folded inside of the county’s Office of the Sherif or left independent run by newcomer Doyle Massey. The murdered body of Missy Adderly is found on Copperhead Trail. Shocked Laney knew the deceased but fears for her younger sister Janelle who went hiking with the Adderly siblings. Leaving his detectives to work the homicide, Doyle accompanies Laney as she begins a search and she prays rescue mission for missing teens as a storm and human danger threaten their effort. The fourth Bitterwood P.D. romantic police procedural (see Murder in the Smokies, The Smoky Mountain Mist and Smoky Ridge Curse) is an exciting S&R drama that contains a strong storyline yet also moves forward the overarching theme as more of Cortland’s empire is revealed. The harrowing suspenseful rescue effort supersedes the attraction with saving the heroine’s sister and surviving the storm and miscreants in the Smokies coming before the protagonists’ desires. Harriet Klausner