She Treads Softly: Midnight Ridge

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Midnight Ridge

Midnight Ridge by Rita Herron
6/12/26; 402 pages
Bookouture
Detective Ellie Reeves #12

Midnight Ridge by Rita Herron is a very highly recommended investigative crime thriller. Detective Ellie Reeves, FBI Agent Derrick Fox and SAR Cord McCain all again return to search for a serial killer. Even though this is the twelfth book in the series, it can be read as a standalone novel.

When a body is found at the bottom of Midnight Ridge, Detective Ellie Reeves, from the small town of Crooked Creek in the Appalachian Mountains, is the first one called by SAR (Search and Rescue) Ranger Cord McCain. Initially it is thought to be the third suicide of a young woman by the sheriff, but clues quickly point to something more nefarious. A witness heard another person at the top of the ridge with sixteen-year-old Minnie Benton before she was murdered. Now the question is where is Minnie's young daughter, Iris, and who is murdering young women and taking their children?

This completely addictive and jaw-dropping crime thriller is another well-written, entertaining addition to the series. The short chapters are action-packed, new information is quickly uncovered, and the investigation moves at a brisk pace. All of this creates a lightning-fast pace that will hold your complete attention throughout the novel. Your heart will be pounding as you fly through the pages and the tension is palpable as the team tries to find the perpetrator before another young woman is murdered.

The narrative follows multiple points-of-view, including the perpetrator, which helps to add tension, complexities, and suspense. There are numerous twists in the investigation while the clues are logically followed along the way. For those following the series, you will know all these characters and understand that Ellie and Cord are in a burgeoning relationship. The relationship is not a major part of the plot.

Midnight Ridge is an excellent well-written investigative thriller that will hold your complete attention. Fans of the series will want to read this asap. 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.