Dangerous Waters by Toni AndersonDangerous Waters on November 20, 2012
Pages: 326
Format: eBook
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three-stars

Sergeant Holly Rudd arrives in the coastal community of Bamfield after local divers discover a body with a knife jutting from its chest in the waters of Barkley Sound. As she investigates the crime, Holly soon realizes the sleepy town is rife with secrets. But what unsettles her most is the residents’ insistence that she bears a striking resemblance to the victim of a murder from three decades earlier. She shrugs off the uncanny likeness as a coincidence. But her simmering attraction to Finn Carver, one of the divers who discovered the corpse, isn’t so easy to ignore.

Finn, a former Special Forces soldier, knows it’s best to keep his distance from Holly. Yet it isn’t long before they both give in to the consuming desire they share. And as the danger escalates, Finn and Holly must rely on each other to thwart the plans of a cold-blooded killer who’s intent on keeping the past buried.

I’ve had this author recommended to me so often that when I saw her books in Kindle Unlimited, I downloaded both that were offered. This one, and the one after called Dark Waters.

So Holly Rudd is a Mountie (this series takes place in British Colombia, Canada). Her dad is the director of the agency. She’s sent on an assignment and it turns out that her boss on this one happens to be a man she had a one night stand with…but he’s married. This guy is a piece of work. She apparently had impostor syndrome or something because she’s constantly trying to prove she got her job on her own merits, not because of daddy, or in this case, sleeping with her boss. The problem is that we’re constantly told that she’s so good at her job, that it feels weird she’s so insecure about getting it.

Finn is a dive instructor, but he’s a former Special Forces underwater demolitions expert (I’m guessing that’s what he was-it was never overtly said). But the man, Thom, who raised him from 13 on was beaten up so he left the Army and came home to watch over him. Turns out the old man’s wife and children were murdered 30 years ago but nothing was ever found. So he devoted his entire life to finding the killer or at least getting the police to try harder. Well during all this, he stumbled upon an organized crime syndicate trying to run drugs. He got beat up for his trouble. But seriously, a town of like 400 people and strangers are running drugs and no one notices? Really?

Meanwhile, Finn and Thom dive a newly discovered wreck, and find a dead body. They call the cops, and this is Holly’s new assignment. So far we have murders from 30 years ago, a dead body on a wreck, and a small mafia. This book was a convoluted mess.

So Holly goes to talk to Finn and the professor, Thom, and the poor old man faints dead away. Holly could be a twin to his murdered wife. So here’s another mystery; the baby was found dead, but his toddler daughter was missing. People just assumed a wild animal got her and went on their merry way. I mean what?!

Now Holly isn’t even interested in the fact that she could be this woman’s twin. Even when she sees the photographs. Then she’s nearly killed. She’s still ignoring it. Finn, for his part, never gets to use his special forces skills. Why have him be SF then? What’s the point of that?

The writing could be tighter, and there are too many points of view. It’s a lot, and it’s not really necessary to advance the plot. The ending surprised me, I definitely didn’t guess it, and I kind of liked the way it was handled, except that the book ended fairly abruptly. Some resolution would’ve been nice. I’m going to read the next book about Finn’s brother, to see if that works better for me.

***I got this book through Kindle Unlimited

three-stars