SILENT EVIDENCE By Rachel Grant
SYNOPSIS
The man of her fantasies is finally hers. Sort of…..
Two things haunt forensic anthropologist Hazel Macleod: the bones of victims of genocide she examines for her work, and former SEAL Sean Logan’s rejection. But within days of moving to her cousin’s estate to take a much needed break, she finds herself faced with both.
First, she is called in to examine a mass grave in Virginia, then, her politician cousin receives a threatening letter and insists Hazel needs around the clock protection – from none other than Sean Logan. To make matters worse, because the threat to her is classified, Hazel and Sean must pretend to be lovers to hide that he’s her bodyguard.
Sean has spent years trying to avoid his boss’s sexy cousin, but now he’s guarding her twenty four seven and even bringing her as his date to a romantic destination wedding. As the heat between them intensifies, Sean can’t lose sight of the danger that brought them together. But when bullets start flying, new questions arise. Are the senator’s political rivals really behind the threat , or is someone trying to silence Hazel from speaking for the dead?
MY REVIEW
This is the first book in this series, and by Rachel Grant that I have read, so I felt at a little disadvantage in a way when seeing this is the eighth book in the series. I have read similar series’s by other authors, and I know I have loved them, and went through a phase of reading one a day. Although this can be read as a stand-alone novel, without having read the previous books, however, there are quite a few references to characters from previous books as well some context would have possibly helped to fit more of this plot and story together. I was able to keep up with what was going on with most of the story, I think it would have made more sense if I had read some of the previous books as bits didn’t make sense, so I may have to catch up with the other books in the near future.
Forensic anthropologist Hazel Macleod has traveled to many destinations related to her work. But when on her last trip, to Croatia, working for the International Commission on Missing Persons, examining the remains of victims of war and genocide, she was deeply affected both physically and mentally. This led to her having panic attacks, as well as lack of sleep, and nightmares when she did sleep, which started to affect her daily functioning, both in and out of work. She goes to stay at her cousins country estate to have a break, but whilst there she gets a call from Isabel Ravissant her cousin Alec’s wife. Isabel is an archaeologist and is working on a job that is time sensitive, when she comes across what she suspects is human remains, but she needs expert help to confirm this, when Hazel takes a look she is appalled, to find that the few bones that have been found are just the tip the iceberg when more, in fact thousands of bones, turn out to belong to at least two dozen people, they have found a mass grave. But who is responsible?
Alec Ravissant is a US senator, he calls Sean Logan who is one of Alec’s top friends, as well as a top operative for a company known as Raptor, Sean is also an ex SEAL. Sean is asked by Alec to come to the site that Isobel has found, without questioning his friend as to why, he arrives, he gets a shock when he sees Hazel there, he didn’t realise she was back on US soil, he had always ignored any feelings he might have for her. Later when with Alec he finds out the Senator has had some threatening letters, hate mail, which normally he would ignore as he has got used to it, however, recent mail has shown knowledge of events in the past relating to himself, Isabel and Hazel which makes him take this threat more seriously than previous ones. He is unable to share details with them because of national security, but as they all know Sean, they know that whatever is said needs to be taken seriously. Alec wants Sean to be bodyguard to Hazel, as they have been invited to a wedding and Alec doesn’t want to leave Hazel at the property on her own, so he insists that Sean act as bodyguard but goes to the wedding as if they are dating! Hazel protests as she doesn’t know the couple getting married and certainly doesn’t want to be a gatecrasher. But Alec insists and as Sean is best man it will be fine for her to go as his plus one.
Hazel has liked Sean for sometime, she had even propositioned him in the past, to her embarrassment he had turned her down, so she really doesn’t trust herself to pose as his girlfriend now. Hazel knows how much she likes Sean, but he refers to her as a ‘party girl’ but as a reader I didn’t get that sense, so not sure where that comes from. There is obviously sexual tension between these two, but it’s a hot then cold thing with Sean, then it’s a just want sex thing and I didn’t feel it was enough, it was just happening too fast in the end, especially when bullets started flying and Sean sort of realises he does have feelings.
I’m just not sure about how the book rushed to the end after lots of plot, politics, racial tension, there seemed to be a huge build up and setting up of the conspiracy theory and the big reveal just wrapped up in the last chapter or so, in a way some of the book could have been left out and it wouldn’t have mattered. I like the characters they were relatable and likeable but the end was just way to fast compared with the rest of the story. With not having read previous books, I don’t have anything to compare it with. The plot was good, characters were interesting and developed obviously some from previous books. Maybe that was the problem for me. There was humour, tension, a steamy relationship. I like that the author did touch on mental health issues as well as emotional ones and of course racial equality. Especially as Sean and Hazel are an interracial couple.
I will give the book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ as I did enjoy the read in a whole
Thank you to #netgalley and #Januspublishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
THE AUTHOR
Rachel Grant is a Four time Golden Heart finalist, she worked for over a decade as a professional archaeologist and mines her experiences for storylines and settings, which are as diverse as excavating a cemetery underneath an historic art museum in San Francisco, survey and excavation of many prehistoric Native American sites in the Pacific Northwest, researching an historic concrete house in Virginia, and mapping a seventeenth century Spanish and Dutch fort on the island of Sing Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles.
She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and children.
Jackie’s Reading Corner 