This book is the next in the series featuring Ali Reynolds. She is the lady who ended up back in her home town of Sedona, Arizona after systematically being fired from her job in broadcasting as main anchor for a television news station in Los Angeles, California. This book starts with her at police academy – one thinks a la Charlie’s Angels but after reading doesn’t sound glamorous at all. During one of the last weeks of training Ali receives a phone call from a past acquaintance from L.A. The caller is a lady, Brenda, who was a rival newscaster on another channel and they never really had a relationship. Anyway it turns out that Brenda is seriously worried about her fiancé and she had heard that Ali does some police/private investigator work.
Brenda is not doing well and that is putting it mildly. She is drowning her fears literally and when Ali agrees to meet her, Brenda is doing shots in the middle of the afternoon in a relatively seedy bar. After some convincing Ali agrees to try to help Brenda and see what has happened to Richard, the missing fiancé. What is interesting is that Brenda has never even met the man and yet has agreed to marry him. I will not reveal too much about Richard but suffice it to say that the man is a creeper extraordinaire. He trolls for women online who are emotionally susceptible and goes in for the kill. Meanwhile we pick up with Richard’s story and how he was laid off a few months earlier and why. What he does for a living then plays a part in the whole story and what happens to him as a result. Regardless of what happens to him I don’t believe one ever feels sorry for him but maybe that is just me. This is another Jance fast mover with a bunch of twists throughout the book.