Dead Against Her

"THE BACK OF THE BOOK"

(from the author's website)

Called to an isolated farm to check on an elderly widow, Sheriff Bree Taggert finds a brutal double homicide. One of the victims is Eugene Oscar, the bitter and corrupt former deputy she recently fired.

Working with criminal investigator Matt Flynn, Bree discovers that she isn’t the only one who had a troubling history with Eugene. But someone doesn’t want Bree digging up the past. She becomes the target of a stranger’s sick and devious campaign calculated to destroy her reputation, career, family, and new relationship with Matt. To make matters worse, she’s the prime suspect in Eugene’s murder.

When her chief deputy goes missing while investigating the case, Bree refuses to back down. She won’t let him become the next victim. His life and her future depend on finding a killer nursing a vengeful rage.

I ADMIT TO SOME APPREHENSION

I used this heading last time, and it fits here, too. Maybe "a lot of" would have been better than "some."

Police protagonists becoming the prime suspect almost never works for me—any protagonist/close associate of the protagonist as the prime suspect, really, but it works less when it's a cop for me. The stakes are so low there—you know they're going to be proven innocent the instant you read that in the description, and a lot of the drama associated with their being suspected is going to feel contrived. The fact that it's her former deputy (and I'm so glad to be done with him!) made it even harder for me to swallow.

When you add to that the "campaign calculated to destroy reputation, career," yada yada, I'm really disinclined to dive in. You're not going to find a supervillain waging a campaign against a local sheriff in that part of the world. But that's all due to whoever wrote the promotional material, because "sick and devious campaign" sounds better than "bitter jackwagon out to smear her reputation" (which is what was really going on, nothing as organized as a campaign suggests).

But, I'm a completionist, I was curious, and Leigh's earned a little trust (if nothing else from the way she dealt with the last thing I was apprehensive about), so I read this. And I'm so glad I did: the "campaign" was what I described—making it more believable, more insidious, more relevant, and with actual stakes—and if you're going to make your protagonist someone suspect, both the author and character need to deal with it the way Leigh and Bree do.

Mostly, I need to stop reading the jacket-copy of these books.

CHIEF DEPUTY TODD HARVEY

I've felt this way since book 2 and have stated it when I read 3 and 4—Leigh wasn't giving Chief Deputy Todd Harvey enough to do. Now, here in book 5, she's given him two—count 'em, two—storylines. I grant you, the more important one (in terms of this novel) isn't really what you want to see happen to a character you like—but the execution was great (and it helped with one of the storylines I was nervous about above).

And the one that was less important for this novel is going to stick around for at least a little while, and gives the foundation for more to come—and it shows that Leigh's thinking of doing things with Todd in the books to come.

Phew.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT DEAD AGAINST HER?

This was probably the best of the series so far—it tied up a couple of longer-term stories, pushed some others along in ways that were necessary, and gave us some really good character moments overall.

The case at the center of this was handled really well, too—I liked the way it came together and faked the reader out in just the right way. The mix of local politics, local media, and police work felt genuine and like something that could/would actually happen.

Dead Against Her was an entertaining and satisfying read and made sure that I'm sticking around with this series for a while to come. You should jump on board, I have a feeling it's going to be around for a bit.