BEYOND HER REACH by Melinda Leigh

4* Another decent outing with Bree Taggert, with glimpses of Morgan and Lance, from the Scarlett Falls books. 

Whilst this isn't Bree's strongest sortie, it's still full of twists; decent investigative skills; people you'd (I'd) like to see get their comeuppance; people you don't for a second suspect as, well, suspects; and machinations that just make you wonder about people's sanity. That the book takes place in the US adds to the believability, all too sadly. 

As usual, the people you think are the likely bad guys, given their lack of redeeming qualities, turn out to be decently done red herrings. Hints, and Bree's thoughts and instincts that we're privy to, add to the 'A-ha!' feel of figuring the mystery out, but not. The actual bad guys, I never would've clocked. I mean, for one person to let themselves be motivated by hatred and resentment and for another to let themselves be so manipulated, kind of felt it might not have worked, but the final reveal, the mention of physical characteristics and skill with taking lives, made it work. The ending was sad but justice got done for Kelly, who really didn't deserve what happened to her. 

It was nice to see Morgan as the lawyer of the main suspect, with Lance supporting her from his slight back-seat position. I'm not sure that we also needed Olivia (Lance's boss's [doesn't work for me] love interest) but the tale worked and a guy who could've been framed, didn't. 

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Montlake for my reading pleasure. 

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