Silent Confessions

I picked up Julie Kenner's Silent Confessions because I liked the cover. Luckily the contents of the book were also terrific: 4.5 out of 5.

Detective Jack Parker is investigating a stalker who leaves notes quoting erotic literature. The stakes increase when a stalking victim is murdered.

Veronica (Ronnie) Archer owns Archer's Rare Books and Manuscripts, a bookstore that specializes in erotia. She meets Jack when he's looking for someone to help him with the notes. Jack and Ronnie begin an affair soon after their first meeting.

There are some familiar elements to the story, such as the detective who becomes a cop because of something that happened to a family member. But the characters don't fall into easy stereotypes. The back cover implies that Ronnie wants to live out the erotic things she reads, but that's not really the case. Perhaps it's more accurate to say that I worried that she would be a repressed woman who relies on erotia. Ronnie is far from repressed, though; she's a dynamic woman who knows what she wants.

Ronnie and Jack's relationship starts as largely physical, but it quickly develops into something more. This is a common occurence in romance novels, but the transition isn't always believable or smooth. Kenner makes the transition convincing. She writes terrific sex scenes, too.

The stalker suspects are few; readers are likely to anticipate the stalker's identity. There are a few twists to the story, and guessing the stalker didn't make the story any less interesting.