Deadly Schemes by Penny Zeller Review

 

Deadly Schemes is another Christian romantic suspense page-turner from Penny Zeller. We return to the small town of Lake Radford with another Close Proximity series murder mystery. This second book focuses on the best friends of the main characters from the first book, Deadly Secrets. 

Kennedy Olohan works at the local senior center and Trace Ridgely is a detective at the local police department. They first meet at the scene of a tragedy where Kennedy is one of two women who come across a dead body. Unbeknownst to them, their best friends Harper and Kade have set them up on a blind date, so they get to spend more time together. And when Kennedy becomes the victim of some threatening and stalker-ish behavior, they end up meeting up even more. But now that he is working on a case that she is involved in, they aren't quite sure if they will be able to have relationship beyond that of friends. 

Like the first book in this series, we also get to see the story through the POV of the villain. We can see his planning and crazy reasoning and how unhinged he is, even though Kennedy has no clue why someone is coming after her. All she wants is do her job planning activities for the seniors she has come to care for at the senior center, helping them with errands as well, plus helping them to avoid scams. And that is what puts her in the killer's crosshairs. Because she has become an obstacle in his relator fraud scheme. 

So much danger surrounding her makes it unclear whether all the different attacks are related, or if there is more than one person out to get her. There are quite a few possible suspects, but Trace is determined to get to the bottom of these crimes before Kennedy gets hurt worse, or even killed. I loved how he was dedicated to his job, but also, I loved how they started caring for each other through all that was going on. There were definitely some sweet moments between them.

I have to say, knowing that seniors were being targeted by the villain really gripped my emotions. I felt so bad for them and was hoping Trace would get to the bottom of these crimes before any more of them got hurt.

As with all her books, the author weaves faith throughout the story. Kennedy and Trace are both Christians who pray to God, go to church, and lean on Him. And we can see Kennedy reaching out to those who are not Christians and praying for them, sharing her faith, but not in a pushy way. You could see that she truly cared for people and showed Christ's love. Even in times of danger she was bringing to mind God's Word and trusting in Him.

Deadly Schemes is very much a faith-filled romantic suspense page-turner. And one I highly recommend.

I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher and was not required to write a favorable review. These are my own honest thoughts.