Flowers for Emily

by: T.L. Vance

Published by: iUniverse

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

Veronica Donavan is a forensic pathologist for Scotland Yard, but she has just followed a lead on a serial killer to Denver, Colorado. She is particularly interested in this murderer because her younger sister, Emily, was one of his London victims. However, in an attempt to avoid being kept off the case due to her personal involvement, she doesn’t reveal this fact to her Denver team – at least not right away. Soon after she meets her investigating team, the murderer strikes again with the same modis-operendi: strangulation and flowers left with the body of a teen-age girl.

Complicating the investigation for Veronica (Roni) is a member of her team that she met while kickboxing at a local gym. Dean Colby is working on this case and also working on her. Their romance gets off to a steamy start and then he is assigned to guard her, because the killer has insinuated that she is going to be his next victim.

This book is fun. The characters are likeable and well developed. For most of the book, I was drawn in like I would be while watching a good TV police drama. I was slightly put-off by the initial sexual encounter because I didn’t feel that I knew them well enough to be privy to a rather graphic sex scene. However, it didn’t spoil the book for me.

I did think that the book could have used a little extra editing at the end. Vance needed to come up with another way to describe feelings than to say “choked with emotion” or a variation of that phrase. It was overused to the point that I started counting the times it came up.

Notwithstanding, I would recommend this as an amusing mystery romance.

Armchair Interviews says: If you like some good romance mixed with your mysteries, check this book out.