Murdered in Conard County - Rachel Lee (HI #1878 - Sept 2019)

Series: Conard County: The Next Generation (Book 40)
            Conard County (Book 60)

They can only solve the perfect murder

If they work together.

After a shot rings out in the night, park ranger Blaire Afton knows her hard-won serenity is in jeopardy. But when she's faced with a murder with no motive and no clues, US forest ranger Gus Maddox agrees with her suspicion that this is no random crime. With their shared military past, Blaire and Gus become close. But will their need for each other hinder their quest for justice?

Good book. It opens in the past with the murderer(s) before they have started killing. The premise behind it is more than a little disturbing, especially the way it evolved. After the prologue, the book moves to the present day, when Blaire hears a gunshot in the night. As a park ranger, it is her job to investigate. At the same time, Gus was out for a late-night ride, brought on by an uneasy feeling. He was partway to Blaire's cabin when he, too, heard the shot, so he joined Blaire. What they found was deeply disturbing. A man was murdered inside his tent while he was sleeping, with his young son in the tent with him.

I liked both Blaire and Gus. Both of them are veterans, and each struggles with PTSD. Their work as rangers suits them perfectly, as it keeps them mostly out of crowds, and lets them spend time in the outdoors. Both have good relationships with their coworkers.

I liked the development of the relationship between Blaire and Gus. They've known each other for a couple of years, as their park jurisdictions are adjacent. They bonded over their time in the military, often meeting for coffee. On occasion, one or the other will share something that happened in the past or something that is bothering them. Sometimes they just talk about their day, or sit and enjoy the quiet. What neither mentions to the other is the growing attraction they feel, fearing that giving voice to it will affect their friendship. But with the murder, Gus can no longer deny the protectiveness he feels toward Blaire. What I really liked about him was that, even though he felt protective, he never doubted Blaire's ability to take care of herself. Though Blaire was confident in herself, she couldn't deny that it was comforting to have Gus nearby. The more time that they spent together investigating the murder, the stronger that the attraction between them grew. I loved that first kiss and seeing the passion between them explode. One of my favorite things is that they both knew the value of communication and honesty between them. They were also aware of each other's problems and knew how to support each other. I loved the ending, as nearly losing each other made them realize what they wanted from the future. The last scene was sweet as they discovered they had friends and found love and a new way of life.

Both Blaire and Gus suspected that the murder was more than a random event. Thanks to their time in the military, they saw the potential that it was a highly planned event. Those feelings deepened when they heard rumors that there had been other seemingly random murders over the last several years, all at parks. At the same time they tried to put the pieces together, the reader also got the point of view from the other side. Two of the men were clearly psychopaths, and their words and actions were definitely creepy. As for the third man, I wouldn't go so far as to call him a victim of circumstances, but he got caught up in something he didn't know how to get out of. His redeeming feature was the heavy dose of guilt that he felt, which I thought affected his later actions. 

A Conard County Courtship - Rachel Lee (HSE #2576 - Oct 2017)

Series: Conard County: The Next Generation (Book 36)
            Conard County (Book 54)

The return…

Vanessa Welling never planned to leave home…until her family fled in shame in the wake of the financial catastrophe that shattered their town -- and her father's will to live. If it weren't for the wreck of a house she just inherited, Vanessa wouldn't have come back, either. And attractive contractor Tim Dawson and his young son are making it even harder to put the Wyoming town behind her once and for all.

Tim has heard the stories. But Vanessa did nothing wrong and shouldn't spend the rest of her life paying the price. Can't she see the positive effect she's having on the single father and his son? That they have the right stuff to build a future? And Conard County is the perfect place to start over!

Sweet romance between two people whose pasts keep them from moving forward. Vanessa and her family left Conard County when she was a child after her father lost his money and his ranch to a scamming friend. That same friend also scammed many of the other townspeople, leaving her dad feeling responsible that they had followed his lead. Those feelings of guilt haunted her father and destroyed his will to live. His attitude also affected Vanessa and her view of the town; she never wanted to go back and face the expected scorn. Then she inherited a house from the man who caused all the trouble.

Tim was a local contractor who was hired to inspect the house and make the repairs necessary before the house was listed for sale. He is a widower with a young son and still grieves the loss of his wife.

I liked Tim. He's an all-around nice guy who was sensitive to Vanessa's feelings about being back in Wyoming. He is a terrific father to Matthew. Some wonderfully realistic scenes between the two of them reminded me of my own kids when they were young. I liked Vanessa, too. She had survived a rough childhood brought about by her parents' inability to deal with what had happened to them. She was buttoned up emotionally at the beginning but went through some pretty significant changes by the end.

I enjoyed the development of the relationship between Tim and Vanessa. There were sparks between them from the beginning though they tried to ignore them. Vanessa had no intention of staying long enough to get involved, and Tim wasn't sure about risking his heart again. Tim was protective of Vanessa from the moment he met her. I liked the way that he invited her to stay with him so that she wouldn't be alone or in a sketchy motel during the blizzard. He wasn't sure why he felt that way but was willing to go with it. I liked how he encouraged her to open up about her feelings regarding the house and her fears about encountering people affected by the scam, and how he helped her face those feelings. He got her involved in working on the house which enabled her to resolve some of her feelings about it and its previous owner. He didn't expect her to wiggle her way past the walls around his heart. I loved how the time spent with her helped him move past the grief and to see that he was ready to move on with his life. Vanessa had some deeper issues to resolve. Thanks to her childhood, she had learned to keep her emotions locked up, though she hadn't realized that was what she did. The time spent with Tim and Matthew made her realize that she had been hiding for most of her life. Her journey of self-discovery was sometimes painful to see, and it occasionally created some awkwardness between her and Tim. I liked Tim's patience as she worked through those feelings. The ending was sweet as they pursued their growing connection, though I am a little confused as to their future path. Hopefully, they'll make appearances in later books so I can see how it turns out.

While I enjoyed this book a lot, I find that I prefer the Conard County books from the suspense line more. There seems to be more intensity to both the stories and the relationships. However, it won't stop me from reading all of the Conard County books.