In the Pines by Kendra Elliot

About the Book

A national treasure hunt with a $2 million prize has driven obsessed fortune seekers to overrun the small town of Eagle’s Nest, Oregon. The hunt’s cryptic clues and the lure of wealth have exposed the desperate side of human greed: theft, fights, trespassing—and even the motive to kill. Police chief Truman Daly craves peace in his town but has a murder on his hands instead. Now the big prize isn’t the only thing hiding in the pines. So is a killer.

When a young boy walks into the local café and claims his mother and baby sister have been missing for weeks, FBI special agent Mercy Kilpatrick investigates and exposes a disturbing twist in his story. Deep family secrets and lies that started sixty years ago have burst into the present, bringing with them deadly consequences.

Mercy’s and Truman’s investigations lead down a path of murder, revenge, and buried secrets to uncover two intertwined mysteries as dark as an Oregon forest.

My Review

This is the first book I have read by Elliot. I like her writing style. There is a good balance of the lives of Mercy, Truman and Evan with the ongoing investigation of a missing woman and child. I like the information about preppers and some considering themselves sovereign citizens, arguing they do not have to pay taxes.

While the plot progresses nicely, I am not sure it works well. The missing woman goes where to find help? The very people her husband did not trust? That just did not work. The treasure hunt was a nice side story, providing murders and some excitement. It also showed what people would do from greed.

I like the setting of the area around Bend, Oregon, the good characters, but a plot that doesn't work all the way.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

About the Author

Kendra Elliot is a Wall Street Journal bestseller and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series, the Mercy Kilpatrick novels, and the Columbia River novels. She’s a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers Award finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She was born and raised in the rainy Pacific Northwest but now lives in flip-flops. Visit her at www.kendraelliot.com.

Montlake, 333 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)