Review of Walking on Her Grave by Melinda Leigh

 

The electrifying conclusion of the romantic suspense novella series from Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot.

The sleepy town of Solitude, Oregon, has turned into ground zero for a turf war between the manufacturers and distributors of a lethal new drug. When a teenage witness disappears, social worker Carly Taylor must find him before he’s silenced permanently.

Rogue County investigator Seth Harding wants to keep Carly, his estranged wife, out of harm’s way, but she refuses to let his concern keep her from doing her job. When one of her young charges vanishes, Carly gets pulled even deeper into the deadly case, and Seth knows he must help her…even if it leads them right into the criminals’ crosshairs.

Explosive and exciting to the last page, Walking on Her Grave is the fourth and final thrilling addition to the new romantic suspense series from Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot.

 

This book came with the audio included on Kindle Unlimited.  I mostly used the audio version.

• Narrator: Kate Rudd
• Listening Length: 3 hours and 1 minute
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Unabridged
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio

 

Narration:  Very good narration by Kate Rudd for this audiobook.  It seems as though by book 4 the narrator was really in tune with the story and the characters.  Of the four novellas, this is her strongest performance.  The character distinction was clear, and it was easy to understand which characters were speaking.  Rudd displayed good tonal range.  Male characters were easily distinguishable from female characters.  There was sufficient differentiation from one female character to the next.  While there was little difference between Seth’s and Zane’s voices, there was substantial differentiation from other male voices.  There were no awkward stumbles or pauses in the narration.  (5/5)

Production:  Sound quality was good. The audio was clear and sound levels were consistent.  Pauses between chapters was sufficient. There were a handful of times where the audio and text were not synced.  (4/5)

Overall Experience:  Overall, this story translated to audio quite well.  (5/5)

 

The Story:

Seth is hunting down an arsonist while Carly is searching for a missing teen.  Both events are related to the bigger issue of drug production and distribution in small town Solitude, Oregon.

This final novel focuses on Carly and Seth but other series main characters, Stevie and Zach are brought in as well.  It’s good to see how all four have changed over the course of the series and in their relationships too.

The clues leading up to the big reveal were well-laid across the series. I had narrowed down my suspicions to two people but a red herring threw me off the real culprit until the end.  Everything clicked at that point and the loose ends were tied up.  I think a major part of that storytelling success is due to how well both Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot worked together in producing the alternating instalments for the series.

My favourite parts:

Seth and Carly working together.  I thought the author did a very good job of showing two people trying to rebuild a marriage.

Carly and Stevie setting off fireworks.

My least favourite part:

Using Carly’s and Patsy’s “feelings” again to trigger a warning.  Thankfully the GPS is a far more practical assist!

 

Each segment of this series told it’s own story.  The cohesion of the series was excellent.  A very entertaining and intriguing ride overall.

I give this novella  and entire series 4/ 5 espresso shots.