The Killing Tide

2.5 stars

Dani Pettrey writes cool, outdoorsy suspense books, which is what first drew me to them. I loved her Alaskan Courage series and have been looking forward to trying her later works. This is her latest series, following members of a Coast Guard Investigative team in North Carolina.

The Christian fiction sub-genre of Romantic Suspense can sometimes fall into a trope-y, predictable pattern, but as long as the mystery/suspense plot is solid, I tend to enjoy them. The Alaskan Courage series had strong mystery plots, and the setting was awesome. And this book had a lot going for it, too: rescue swimming, underwater retrieval, lots of suspicious activity, etc. The plot was compelling and fast-paced, and I read it really quickly to find out what was going to happen next.

However, there were a couple things that made me like this less than I could've:

1) There was a lot of romance. I don't mind a little romance, but there was a lot of talk of physical attraction, lots of kissing/making out, angst, etc. It was a bit too much for me.

2) The ending made me a little squeamish. The bad guy was smuggling things into the US, including exotic animals. Gabby is bitten by a poisonous snake *shudder* and when she's captured, they try to feed her to some hungry sharks. When she's rescued, one of the bad guys falls into the water with the sharks, and you can imagine what happens from there... Later, someone comes after Gabby with an ax. I was not expecting that level of violence, so it caught me off guard.

3) Gabby annoyed me a little. She constantly insists she can take care of herself, and doesn't seem to care that there's a criminal after her trying to kill her. She makes dumb decisions and puts her life, and others', at risk, all in pursuit of a story (she's an investigative reporter.) Finn, the love interest, accuses her of putting the story above all else, including herself and the people she loves (this is accurate.) She blows it off at the time, but then at the end decides to stay to pursue a relationship with Finn. I don't know why I'm marking this as a spoiler, because it's so predictable. So basically, because she's in love, her character flaws vanish. Sorry, but that's not how it works. I would've liked to see some more growth in her as a character, some acknowledgement that people are more important than her career. But it doesn't happen. Sigh.

I know I went on a bit of a rant, but I didn't hate this book. It had some good aspects and some not-as-good aspects. If you're a big fan of Christian Romantic Suspense, I'd still recommend this (I would recommend her Alaskan Courage series more, though). And I've already started book 2, The Crushing Depths, so here's hoping I enjoy it!