Zoe Chambers is a paramedic and deputy coroner in Monongahela County, Pennsylvania. Her fiancé Pete Adams, is the sheriff. When she learns there's been a shooting - and her longtime friend Horace Pavelka is the shooter, she and her partner Earl run to the scene. The dead man, Dennis Culp, has a history of bullying Horace. When Pete learns from everyone around that Dennis was beating on Horace's car with a baseball bat and threatening him, it's apparent that this was self-defense. He also learns that Culp and his friends the Jennings brothers have been bullying Horace since he was in school, it's no surprise he carried a gun to protect himself. But when another body shows up in Horace's kitchen, and he disappears along with his girlfriend, Pete knows this wasn't self-defense and begins to wonder if Zoe's belief in Horace's innocence is true.

We also learn that Zoe might soon be out of her job as deputy coroner, since her boss is up for election, and the man running against him will do everything to put him - and Zoe - out of their jobs, if he can. Then, an old journalist friend turns up and offers to help Zoe find her long-lost half-brother. After her last encounter with someone who claimed to be just that, she's not sure she wants to find out. It's also a surprise, to say the least, when her mother Kimberly shows up with her cousin Patsy and is determined to plan Zoe's wedding - in Florida. Between being railroaded by her mother, her belief in Horace's innocence, and deciding to look for her brother, Zoe has no idea that the road she's taken is going to put her in mortal danger...and Pete, too...

I've read every book in this series and they just keep getting better. I've watched Zoe as she goes through her emotional and mental changes; as she's learning to deal with her past and embrace her future. It's been an interesting ride, like being on a roller coaster that stops every time you reach the top before going back down again.

Ms. Dashofy is one of the most talented writers I've ever come across. Her stories do not disappoint, and they bring you into the lives of Zoe and the people around her. What is surprising, however, is how you can start out disliking one character so intensely, and then just when you least expect it, that character does something to completely redeem them. (If you want to know who and what, you need to read the book.)

This was once again a book filled with suspense - and we are wondering, along with Pete, if maybe Horace actually did snap and kill the second person. The clues are there pointing toward him, and we have the same doubts as Sheriff Adams has along the way. It's an intriguing tale, and just when you think it's leading in one direction, you discover it's venturing somewhere else entirely - and there is a 'wow' moment near the end that brings it all together and comes completely out of the blue, stunning both Zoe and the reader.

With all the twists and turns, it eventually threads together in the end, giving us a completely satisfying tale that is worthy of being read again. This was an engrossing book that I read in one sitting (without even getting a second cup of coffee!); it was that good. The characters leap out at you from the page, giving themselves life and pulling you into the story effortlessly. I look forward to reading the next in the series. Highly recommended. ( )