RICOCHET by Sandra Brown

Imagine my surprise and delight to read two good books back to back and in hardcover no less!! I took a chance on a Sandra Brown's new hardcover and bought RICOCHET. It's been sometime since I bought one of Ms. Brown's books in hardcover so I was sort of holding my breath. It was actually the Publisher's Weekly review that mentioned it was one of her better books in a long time that prompted me to give it a go.

Let's see if I can do a quickie summary of the story. There's a homocide cop Duncan Hatcher who while having a few vices is one of those straight arrow cops who never compromises. He finds himself called out on a case at a well known superior judge's home one Cato Laird. Duncan and his partner DeeDee are investigating the shooting of an intruder that Judge Laird's beautiful wife Elise has killed.

On the surface it appears that the shooting is an open and shut case of self defense until the beguiling Elise seeks Duncan out and makes a wild allegation that Duncan doesn't buy for a minute...much as he'd like to.

There is lots of delicious tension in this book and for once some legitimate twists and turns. One of the great things for me was that as soon as I had a thought or had drawn a conclusion about the plot Ms. Brown very capably either provided an explanation or sent you down another path. It kept me drawn in throughout the story.

This was a very satisfying read. Neither too neat nor too complicated. The characters are interesting and all too human. Neither Duncan nor Elise fit into neat compartments as typical H/H.

I used to wait for Ms. Brown's releases with baited breath but in recent years I haven't been able to really get into her books. I'm glad I took a chance on this one.