Good Stuff - Suspicious Circumstances

So here's the scoop. I've read a bunch o' books that I've liked and I've been meaning to talk about them. So now I get to stop "meaning to" and actually do it. First up is Sandra Ruttan's debut, Suspicious Circumstances.

I gotta say, I'm not normally a big fan of police procedurals. This book is not your typical procedural, though. There's not an alcoholic, divorced cop with anger/PTSD/oh-god-I've-lost-my-partner issues to be found. Thank god. What you will find is a journalist who's willing to put principles before headlines (hey, this is fiction! Okay, there are some principled journalists out there in the real world, but you know what I mean), and a cop who's an actual human being. What?! Can you do that?! Well, yeah, that's exactly what author Ruttan has done. Again, thank god.

While Suspicious Circumstances has plenty of nasty crimes to keep you hooked, the real meat of the story lies in the relationship between journalist Lara Kelly and Detective Tymen Farraday. I'm not talking Harlequin Romance stylie relationship, I'm talking about the real deal kinda relationship. Plenty of spark, intelligence, and the back and forth dance of growing trust and understanding.

So...I'm not going to go all spoiler-ific here. I'll just say that if you're looking for a police procedural that has plenty of darkness and a healthy dose of heart to go along with a head-snapping series of twists, then you'll probably dig this book. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing what Ruttan comes up with next. Should be veddy interesting.