Hello, and welcome back! I'm enjoying our beautiful fall weather here: bright blue sky, a little breeze, and warm sunshine. It's fabulous, at last. I've also been working my way through the November books here on my desk and finding some far better than others, while wishing I'd skipped some altogether.

This week, I have Jamie Denton's latest: Remain Silent (Brava). Laurel Jennings has just buried one of her closest friends when she's arrested for his murder. Damon Metcalf leaves his calm (boring) existence in Montana to come back to L.A. to defend Laurel, even though she doesn't want him to. After all, the ADA has a pretty good, if circumstantial, case against Laurel, enough, he believes to get the death penalty. Then there's Laurel's former foster father, who works for some nefarious secret organization, and having Laurel back with them would be in their best interest, no matter what she wants. When Laurel and Damon start digging into her late partner's life, looking for other potential suspects, they find some interesting things. And start annoying the real murderer. This one had the potential to be very good, with the whole wrongly-accused-heroine story, and the investigation to find the actual culprit. The biggest trouble here is that the two main characters aren't very likable, aren't very sympathetic. Laurel is far too distant a character to reel in readers, and she doesn't warm up much as the story continues. Damon seems like a nice guy, but with a heroine you don't like, who cares? And this one is busy besides. We have scenes with the homicide detectives, and the murderer and more. I was really very disappointed with this one after enjoying her last book, The Matchmaker so much. I had high hopes that were very quickly squashed once I started reading this one. And the mystery portion fizzles out before the end, so that even readers only half-paying attention will figure out whodunit. What a shame. This one's only earned two of Cupid's five arrows.

Until next time, happy reading!