Cross Her Heart

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S CROSS HER HEART ABOUT?
Bree Taggert is a homicide detective in Philadelphia. She's successful enough, has a great partner, and is able to generally keep her personal demons in their place.

And she has more demons than most—her abusive father killed her mother and then himself with Bree and her two siblings nearby. She was raised by a demanding aunt while her brother and sister were raised by their grandparents, who couldn't handle their older sibling.

Then Bree's sister, Erin, is murdered. Erin's estranged husband, Jason, is the prime suspect and is missing. Erin's body was discovered by Matt, Jason's friend. Before a shooting left him unable to work, he'd been a detective and a K-9 officer for the local sheriff's office. He's not in law enforcement anymore, but he still has the experience—his knowledge of Jason and his experience tell him that Jason's innocent. He just needs to prove it.

Recent events have left the department without a sheriff, and while the Chief Deputy seems to be a good cop, he's not much of an investigator—recognizing this, he's willing to work with Erin and Matt, assuming they share information with him. He knows he won't stop them from looking into things, so he might as well profit from it.

Bree wants someone to pay for the murder, so does Matt, but he wants his friend to be safe, too. The question is—will both of them be able to achieve their goals?

FASTEST WAY TO MAKE ME A FAN...
...is to include a dog. More and more I find myself a sucker for a strong canine presence, and Leigh delivers one here. On top of an already compelling read, that's just icing on the cake.

As I said, Matt was a K-9 officer before his shooting. His dog, Brody, left the department with him. Brody's a steady presence throughout the novel—Matt has to leave him home (or with Erin's niece) frequently, but he's still around, helping. Matt's sister runs a rescue shelter, too, and so there are plenty of dogs around.

They're all depicted as helpful—both for in the hunt for Jason and the killer, but also in helping Erin's kids cope with their mother's death and some of the other things going on around them. This is done in just the way I'd like to read it.

THE PILOT EPISODE
Even if I didn't know that there were three books in this series already (and, I assume, more on the way), I'd have known more Bree Taggert books were intended to follow this. The title/subtitle might as well have been “The Pilot Episode.” Sure, the emphasis of this novel is finding the murderer and possibly clearing Erin's estranged husband, but it's also about setting up the series.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, really. I'm just describing things.

Story beat after story beat you could just feel “oh, this is happening to establish this character/idea/etc. so we can revisit it later/in every book” or “this is going to play out for a while” or “this is how this relationship is going to be set up.” It eliminates a bit of suspense from the book, but just a bit. And there's always the chance the reader's wrong about thinking something/someone is safe.

FOOL ME ONCE
Early on—partially due to the pilot-y nature of the book, partially due to the way Leigh started the book, partially due to hubris—I was convinced I knew all the major plot points, how they'd be resolved, how the reveals would happen, who the killer was, what the ramifications of various events would be and what new status quo would be set up for the series.

And for most of the book, I was either right or I gathered more evidence for my ideas. The key word is “most.” I'm not going to say exactly when Leigh started proving me wrong, but it was somewhere in the last quarter of the book. Boy howdy, was I wrong. At least about the two or three most significant storylines—overall, I think I'd give myself a B for predictions. But the things I was wrong about? I was very, very wrong about them.

I love that. She didn't cheat—everything was right there for the reader to pick up and interpret the clues as they should be interpreted, but Leigh did it in such a way that you'd think I'd never read a mystery novel before.

So, she got me this time-I'll watch for her next time.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT CROSS HER HEART?
So, if I was so confident I knew what was going to happen, why did I keep reading? Because something about the way Leigh wrote this kept me from stopping. I can't point to any one thing (or handful), but this book got its hooks in me and wouldn't let go. I'd planned on reading a chapter or three just to dip my toes in the water one night—and ended up reading just shy of 100 pages! I gave serious consideration to just bailing on sleep until I finished, too.

While a good hook, an original idea/take on an idea, or a type of character no one's thought of before are great to get you into a book. It's the execution of an idea that keeps you reading (and coming back for more). And Cross Her Heart is well-executed. I'd like to be able to point out one or three things she's doing that makes it work so well, but I can't. She's got some sort of alchemy going on here, and I just couldn't stop reading.

I like this world that she's established, and see a lot of promise for this kind of series with these characters and this setting*. I'm in for at least the next two books—give this a shot and I think you'll be sticking around for more too.

* I didn't have time or space to get into the way that Leigh weaves the personal and family stories into the mystery, but I really appreciated that too, and think it'll be a strength of future books. Hopefully, I can address it more fully soon.

Wow! Considering the fact that I put this book on my Amazon wishlist on a whim, I am still in awe and trying to process the fact that this book is as good as it is. It blew me away in every sense of the word and I had a really hard time putting it down, which means I would have probably finished it in one sitting if that was at all possible with my schedule. I loved every single thing about this book, from the complex and intricate characters that also have dark pasts, to the plot that kept taking turn after turn and kept me on the edge of my seat, holding my breath the entire time! All I can say is- WOW!

To begin with, Cross Her Heart is the first book in the Bree Taggert series and it follows a homicide detective, Bree, as she is called back to her hometown to investigate the sudden death of her sister, Erin. As far as plots go, this one isn't the most unique but the execution is one of the best I have ever seen in a book. It's a pretty overdone premise and yet in this book it feels so unique, so different because there are so many twists and turns that I never saw coming. It's one of those books where you start to suspect everybody and start doubting yourself after every chapter and I honestly love that, it makes the reveal all that much more exciting in my opinion. There wasn't a moment in this book where I was bored either, the pacing was on point and I appreciated the short chapters, where something exciting happened in almost every single one. Definitely not a dull moment in this book.

Further on, the characterization in this novel is top notch, at least in my opinion. I loved how read the characters felt, how they practically jumped off the page at me. They all had their own intricate and complicated pasts and those pasts really affected them in the present day and made them who they are, which is the same in real life, with real people. They also had their own complex personalities and were on their own life journeys. There were both minuses and pluses to each character and I've never been able to relate more to every single one. Bree Taggert is definitely one of my all time favorite heroines and I can't wait to read all the other books in the series and get blown away.

In conclusion, if you are looking to start a new detective/murder series look no further. I haven't heard or seen many people talk about this book and that needs to change because it was terrific. It even elicited such strong emotions from me that I actually cried whilst reading it, which never happens to me. After I finished this book, I felt like I had to say goodbye to good friends. Once I realized this was a series, I was ecstatic because it made me realize that I don't have to say goodbye quite yet. Please read this book, you won't regret it! One of my all-time favorites!