CFBA Tour: Coral Moon

I couldn't wait to receive my copy of Brandilyn Collin's latest book Coral Moon. Within twenty-four hours I'd finished it -- another day a casualty to her seatbelt suspense.

In Coral Moon we return to Kanner Lake, the fictional setting for Violet Dawn. This time Leslie Williams, the reporter who tracked down the killer in Violet Dawn, walks to her car one morning and finds a body propped in the passenger seat. The rest of the book rocks through to the end as the town braces for more bodies. The police race to find a suspect when there are few clues. And all clues point to a dead man being the killer. Yep, a dead man.

Now this is not your typical CBA suspense. I'm not much into ghost stories, but this one has a twist that kept me reading. And Brandilyn laces it all together in the end with a cleverness that kept me shaking my head but not feeling cheated. The clues were there, the red herrings sprinkled in, and even when I started to guess who was behind it all, I quickly talked myself out of that conclusion.

The ensemble cast prevents deep characterization of all but the main characters. Even with that constraint, I like the way she built on what we knew of the town and its residents from the first book, but wrote Coral Moon in such a way it stands completely on its own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can't wait for the third installment Crimson Eve.
And check out the Scenes and Beans Blog to see what's happening in Kanner Lake until then.