Dodging bullets isn’t the homecoming he expected.

When Detective Foster Lovett’s pretty next-door neighbor, Millie Dean, begs him to help her find her missing brother, the other deputies warn him not to investigate the case.

But Foster’s gut says something is off, particularly once Millie becomes a target.

Foster will do whatever it takes to keep her safe, but can he solve the most dangerous case of his career?

Titles in the Saving Kelby Creek series include — Uncovering Small-Town Secrets – Searching for Evidence – Surviving the Truth –

This is an adult 18+ story that may contain language, possible violence, and/or sexual situations geared to an adult audience.

 

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Title:  Uncovering Small Town Secrets
Series:  Saving Kelby Creek #1
Author:  Tyler Anne Snell
Genre:  Romantic Suspense
Release Date:  June 29, 2021
Rating:  4.5 stars

The action is fast-paced and the large-scale corruption that this small town is trying to recover from becomes obvious within a very short time.  Uncovering Small Town Secrets, the opening title in the Saving Kelby Creek series caught my reluctant attention early on.  Reluctant?  Well, yes, there is world-building here, there has to be at the beginning of any series and for some reason, I wasn’t feeling swept away with the story at first.  Although there is definitely action happening early on, it took me a few chapters to fall into the rhythm of Foster and Millie – and to be fair, there is a lot happening at first so keeping names straight and good guy/bad guy identities clear in my mind did give me pause.  I’m not going to sugar-coat it, it did take me a bit to really get into this story… but once I got caught up in the tensions of this town I read the story straight through without stopping.

Millie is a strong character.  In many ways, she’s had to be since her brother’s disappearance and the lack of help from the local sheriff’s department.  It’s been six months since Fallon disappeared and on this anniversary Millie has had enough and sets out to get answers… and no one is going to stop her this time.

Foster is returning home after a divorce and learning the troubles his hometown is facing.  His focus now is finding answers, helping rebuild the police force with good people, and helping out a town that he couldn’t get out of fast enough at one time.  He just never figured that his work would begin on his first night in town as he sees his pretty neighbor heading to her car with a bat and a flashlight in hand.  Or that he’d face that same woman in his office the next morning as she tried to get the new man on the force to actually listen to her concerns about her brother.  She knew what the others thought – they were wrong, but no one would listen to her, Foster is her last hope before taking on the search by herself.

Uncovering Small Town Secrets is intense, it’s a puzzle with missing pieces to be fit into place and it’s up to Millie and Foster to find those puzzle pieces and the right places to fit them into in order to get a much larger picture of what’s happening to this couple, her brother, and this struggling town.  I enjoyed this story and I don’t feel I can say much more without giving away spoilers in a complex series opener.  We meet characters where my curiosity is now engaged in finding out more about them and how they fit into this small town.  There are still puzzle pieces scattered about, and I’m certain the rest of the series will show us where they fit.  It’s a good story and an intriguing series that I’ll follow to its conclusion.

I own a Kindle edition of this title.

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