Review: Stone Cold Heart (Tracers #13)

Stone Cold Heart (Tracers #13)

by Laura Griffin

Blurb:

When local rock climbers stumble upon abandoned human bones in a remote Texas gorge, Sara Lockhart is the first to get the call. She has a reputation as one of the nation’s top forensic anthropologists, and police detective Nolan Hess knows she is just the expert he needs to help unravel this case. Although evidence is scarce, Nolan suspects the bones belong to a teenage climber who vanished last summer.

But as Sara unearths strange clues, she finds chilling similarities to a case from her past—a case that now threatens to rock Nolan’s community. While Sara digs deep for answers, the stakes rise higher as another young woman disappears without a trace. Investigators work against the clock as Sara races to discover the truth, even if her harrowing search brings her face to face with a stone-cold killer.

Themes: Contemporary

Rating: 4 stars

Heat Rating: 

Review:

 The Tracers are back and better than ever. Personally I have always been intrigued by everything that a forensic anthropologist can learn just from a set of old bones, and this story certainly fed my interest in the science and intrigue of that.  The story revolves around a small town in Texas, famous for its parks and rock climbing spaces, where a set of bones has suddenly caused uproar for the community and its police force, including Nolan Hess. Sara Lockhart, the resident anthropologist from the Delphi center has been called in to find out who the bones are and what happened to end their life, and she is forced into close quarters with Nolan immediately.  The mystery quickly deepens when Sara and her team find more and more bones that don’t belong to their original body, leading Sara to believe that this site is really a body dump location for what could be a serial killer.  Nolan is amazed and intrigued by the passion Sara has for her work, and the sexy Anthropologist leads him on a merry chase, but he hates how she keeps putting herself in danger.  Nolan is an alpha protector at heart and not being able to keep Sara safe frankly makes him nuts.  They quickly learn that they work well together, but the killer has locked onto their investigation and is tracking them, and will protect his secret at all costs.  I loved seeing Sara in action, and I do mean action, because though she is a geek, she is also a woman of action and unwilling to just hide in her lab when she might be in danger.  She is smart, sassy, and has a dedication to her work that is admirable in any woman, but with someone whose job is as important as hers, is goes to a whole new level.  Sara was the type of woman I could see myself being best friends with, no question, and I have no problem understanding why Nolan fell in love with her so quickly.  Nolan was one of my favorite heroes in this series and seeing him kicking butt and taking names to save him woman and keeping her safe was interesting.  I loved watching them working together and finding their hearts quickly devoted to one another. In the end, only that trust in one another and devotion to their belief in each other is what saved Sara’s life when the killer gets the best of her.  I am dying to see where this series goes next and which of the Tracers loses their heart, but I know that wherever Ms. Griffin takes was will be magical and worth every second of waiting.

*ebook provided by publisher (via netgalley) for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review.  No compensation was provided.