Deborah Ledford’s mystery, Snare, plays music with mystery, action and excellent locations. It’s the second book in a series starting police Deputy Steven Hawk and his associate Inola Walela. Hawk is called on to lead the protective details around secretive Native American singer/songwriter Katina during her first ever live concert. But the singer’s business manager has been hiding death threats from her, and the girl who likes to hide away feels more vulnerable than ever as secrets come out.

Wounded characters get the chance to heal and move on in this scary tale and there’s a pleasing feeling that mistakes don’t destroy every hope, and even death is not the end. The landscape and people of the Taos Pueblo Indian reservation are brought to life quite beautifully, providing depth of background and enjoyable twists of intrigue to this novel. Meanwhile the writing has a musical feel, playing a different theme from the author’s earlier Staccato, with a flute’s haunting tones flying free above a whispering drumbeat of fear.

The characters are pleasing. The insight into Hawk and Katina’s lives is intriguing. Family is important, both sides of a police line, and integrity wears different uniforms in different places. Personally, I enjoyed this book more than Staccato, feeling it more consistent and self-contained, but that’s just me. They’re both thoroughly enjoyable reads.



Disclosure: I received a free ecopy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.