Midnight Dunes by Laura Griffin Series: The Texas Murder Files, #3, #3
Published by Berkley Books on 24th May 2022
Pages: 368
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When the shocking discovery of a murdered woman's body disturbs the tranquility of tourist season, the police detective in charge of the puzzling case must work alongside the new filmmaker in town to pursue every lead in the new romantic thriller from New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin.
After a scandal derails her television reporting career, Macey Burns comes looking for a change of pace in Lost Beach, Texas. She's ready to focus on her first passion--documentary filmmaking--and has a new job working for the island's tourism board, shooting footage of the idyllic beachside community. Her plans for a relaxing rebound are dashed when she realizes the cottage she's renting belonged to the woman whose body was just found in the sand dunes.
Detective Owen Breda is under intense pressure to solve this murder. Violent crimes are rising in his small town, and he can't stand to see anyone else hurt...especially not the beautiful documentarian who keeps showing up at the precinct.
With the clock ticking, cameras rolling, and body count climbing, Macey and Owen must use all their resources to find the killer without getting caught in the crosshairs.
‘Midnight Dunes’ is yet another solid read of a homicidal procedural in a small town and the whodunnit-mystery solution is a process I always enjoy going through–especially when it’s done with Laura Griffin’s brand of writing.
As a crime/suspense book, it’s a no brainer wonderful read for me. To get the bird’s eye ‘insider’ view of small-town law enforcement scrambling to unravel the case–as fictional as it might be–is what makes the experience an engrossing one, but to call this a romantic suspense might be way too much of a stretch.
What I’m reading here is a sequence of events – with a suspenseful build done with sheer mastery – that seems to be the main focus of the book rather than the cursory and half-hearted romance. Griffin excels at the former and the mystery case that seems to elude everyone but seems to neglect the relationship/romance-part of the plot: I seem to know the protagonists only superficially, learn of their seeming attraction but not read about the angst that sometimes accompanies and deepens an emotional connection and hence, can’t get a grip on whether Macey/Owen can be together past this whole episode.
Going through every Griffin novel is akin to watching a self-contained episode in a crime drama-series. Without the cliffhanger, there’s that satisfying ending when the case is closed, but there’s also some kind of regret that there are no hints of future couples (because Griffin’s books revolve around plot rather than pairing) when there are definitely some in past books which I’d wished she would write about.
