ECHO OF DANGER - Marta Perry
Echo Falls , Book 1
HQN
ISBN: 978-0-373-78927-6
May 2017
Suspense
Echo Falls, Pennsylvania - Present Day
Deidre Morris has a small business selling Amish crafts on line, enabling her to stay at home and care for her five year old son, Kevin. Thankful she is able to support herself and her small son after losing her husband Frank to a car accident almost a year ago, Deidre is learning to stand on her own again after the devastating loss. Her life is good, except for one thing: Judge Franklin Morris (her father-in-law), is demanding that Deidre sell her family home. Just this morning the hateful man informed her that he had found a buyer for her house!
Deidre is worried. Judge Morris is trying to take her son away from her. He insists that she and Kevin move into his stately mansion, but Deidre refuses. Deidre's husband hated growing up in that house, and he hated his father's power and manipulation even more, but unable to fight the Judge's influence, Frank followed the path his father set down for him. But Deidre has no intention of jumping into that particular fire. She will not allow Judge Morris to control Kevin's destiny. Deidre has lots of familial support, and though she is not Amish, she has her father's Amish family to rely on, thirty-four cousins, all of them offering love, acceptance and help any time she needs them. But is that enough to keep the Judge's demands at bay?
Jason Glassman is not happy to be in Echo Falls. Yes, he is grateful that the influential Judge Morris has given him a job, but he's not happy about it. Accepting this job came with strings not to Jason's liking, but he had no choice. After being fired and nearly disbarred for compromising an important case in Philadelphia, Jason was forced to leave the city behind. Now employed by Morris, Morris and Atler, Attorneys-at-Law, Jason hopes that the Judge's promise to make him a partner will actually happen. Jason's job is contingent upon Jason's proving that Deidre Morris is an unstable and unfit mother. So, on his first night in Echo Falls, he has just been introduced to Deidre at a meeting. Earlier, Jason disabled her car, and when he offers Deidre a ride home, they find Deidre's best friend, Dixie James, lying dead in Deidre's living room, brutally murdered while Kevin slept upstairs. In the blink of an eye, Jason is now acting as counsel in Deidre's defense, while the Judge orchestrates his own evil plan in the background.
There is an ECHO OF DANGER when Dixie is killed, then Deidre's house is broken into and someone shoots at her during a trip to the old mill on the river. Someone is trying to kill Deidre and she doesn't know why. She trusts Jason to keep her safe, unaware of his subterfuge. Jason's job is getting close to Deidre, not romantically, but in order to find evidence against her. Instead, as he spends more time with her, Jason sees a different picture of the woman the Judge has painted so darkly. He longs to tell Deidre the truth, but he fears she'll turn away if he confesses. He just needs more time to find the killer and keep her safe.
ECHO OF DANGER is the first book in the new Echo Falls Series by author Marta Perry, and will be followed by SOUND OF FEAR in October 2017. A small town in Pennsylvania Dutch country, Echo Falls is named after the spectacular waterfall at the end of town where the old mill stands. Inside the pages of ECHO OF DANGER is a cast of heart-warming characters, both Amish and Englisch, who wrap around the reader's heart in this quintessential small town story. But there is danger here, amidst old secrets, haunted buildings and old legends, while Deidre and Jason struggle to learn the truth about Dixie's murder. Who would want to kill her and why are they terrorizing Deidre?
ECHO OF DANGER is a great romantic suspense and a keeper!
Diana Risso
