Investigative reporter Emma Thomas is on a mission to revive her career and reclaim her life… and her dignity. Using the information from an anonymous informant, all she needs is to get photos of a suspected drop location in her hometown of Staunton, Virginia to give her drug trafficking expose the weight it needs to get her back in the game.

She finds the drop spot in the woods but instead of finding drugs, Emma witnesses a murder, and the baddies intend for her to be the next victim.

Her dash to safety leads Emma to former best friend and first crush, Detective Adam Marshall. A misunderstanding and tragedy have kept them apart for over a decade, but time and distance hasn’t changed their hearts. Death threats and more attempts on Emma’s life could be the catalysts to force Adam to choose which he’s willing to sacrifice—his career or the life of the woman he’s loved since grade school.

Adam Marshall is the nice guy/everyman trying to be a decent cop and get through each day. He focuses on his career to forget everything he’s lost and avoid the guilt for the parts he played.

Emma left Staunton for the same reasons, but despite them both moving on, they’re still weighed down by the past. Honestly, these two have enough baggage and drama between them to fill an Andrew Lloyd Webber stage production. Their banter got annoying for me in a few spots because they were talking without really saying anything.

I felt bad for Adam with the love of his life stumbling into a case he’s been working on for months. He has to admit things to himself he wasn’t ready for. I’m not too quick to extend the same grace to Emma. She annoyed me. With all they’ve both gone through together and apart, neither of them did anything “wrong,” but she was too confrontational for me, looking to argue with Adam over anything. Trying to mask her true feelings? Perhaps. But it led her to make too many dangerous decisions and took her far too long to understand the gravity of their situation. One minute she was, “I could die today,” and the next, “But what about my story?” Meh.

But liking characters isn’t required to enjoy a story. Murder on the Mountain is an enjoyable read with a solid plot. Tensions and emotions run high when the chief villain is exposed and it’s not clear who will live to see another day.

My favorite scenes: Emma in the closet; and Pablo in the closet. HA! Don’t ask, just grab this one today.

Enjoy!

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Emma Thomas hasn’t been home in years. Only back in Staunton for a few months, she plans to put her investigative reporter skills to use in exposing the trafficking group using her peaceful, idyllic hometown to move drugs. But when she stumbles onto more than drugs, bullets start flying and she has to ask the one person she left Virginia to avoid for help.

Detective Adam Marshall has been working this cartel case for months. On the precipice of breaking the organization wide open, he can’t believe the one woman he’d never been able to get over now holds the key to closing his case. His head warns him to steer clear, but his heart won’t let him walk away when Emma’s life is on the line.

Thrown together by chance after so many years, Adam and Emma work together to break the biggest case of both of their careers and heal some old wounds in the process. Falling in love wasn’t on the docket for either of them, but things don’t always go as planned.

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