She Treads Softly: Her Deadly Rose

Friday, October 4, 2024

Her Deadly Rose

Her Deadly Rose by Carolyn Arnold
10/18/24; 322 pages
Bookouture
Detective Amanda Steel #12

Her Deadly Rose by Carolyn Arnold is a highly recommended investigative thriller and the twelfth book in the Detective Amanda Steele series.

After her special performance in Woodbridge, Virginia, champion figure skater Michaela Glover is discovered dead in her dressing room. Penny Glover, Michaela's aunt, Amanda, and her daughter Zoe were all attending the show and they were the ones who discovered her body. After a brief look at the room, Amanda immediately suspects foul play and calls her partner Detective Trent Stenson to set the investigation into motion. Once the team begins to collect evidence it becomes clear Michaela was murdered.

Amanda and Trent must look closely at Michaela's life to try and uncover who could have been responsible for her murder. She had a troubled past and there are clearly people who could be culpable. The discoveries and clues initially uncovered in the investigation lead to several suspects. The complexity in the case increases with each new revelation as the clues are followed logically to another line of questioning.

Even though it is part of a series, it can be enjoyed as a stand alone novel too. You may not have all the background information on the lives of the characters, but you can still appreciate the plot. There is enough basic background information to follow along.

This well-written, fast-paced, engaging police procedural will hold your attention from start to finish. Thanks to Bookouture for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.