No One Left to Tell by Jordan Dane (Romantic Suspense) (Avon 2008)

Another awesome book by Jordan Dane. Romantic, suspenseful --- stunning.

The body of a man is found in a chapel. Brutally slain, his body holds a message carved into the body, in its eerieness equal to the position of the body itself. Detective Raven Mackenzie's investigation brings her face to face with the mysterious Christian Delacorte, a man who is both the key and the wall to her investigation. Fiona Dunhill orders Christian to assist Raven's investigation, an investigation which will put Christian's loyalties to the ultimate test. The pasts of both Raven and Christian haunt them as this case reaches down to the core of everything and everyone they hold dear. Forced together by this investigation, Raven and Christian are drawn together with a kind of hot chemistry that won't let up, a chemistry that inspires them to make choices that might lead to slip in their carefully planned procedures and goals. As they hunt down the clues, in a careful dance of revealing and hiding clues from each other to gain the advantage, Raven and Christian's hunt leads them to the dark place where their very lives requires looking into their hearts for answers.

Just a quick blog now before I write my review. Jordan Dane's debut book, No One Heard Her Scream, floored me. I knew right then that it would be on my top ten list of 2008 books. Now, with her second book, I think I will have to revise that statement to add Jordan Dane's No One series instead of just one book. First you have this awesome hero and heroine whose chemistry and romance put the romance into Romantic Suspense. Then you have the suspense with all its twists and surprises to excite fans of Romantic Suspesne and Suspense alike. What imagery. What diabolic villains...and such intriguing secondary characters...Fiona, the Priest, Raven's partner. No One Left to Tell also has a neat ending for a book that continues...yes a cliffhanger to lead into the next book (which comes out at the end of May so not like a person has to wait a year), but also leaves a person feeling satisfied too --- the perfect balance.

A confession...I actually read this book a while ago but I was so blown over by this book, that I have felt too speechless to even blog it. No One Left To Tell is hauntingly beautiful. One one level, it's just an awesome fun suspense read that I could not put down. On another level, this book really exemplifies why I am a booklover. No One Left to Tell just keeps giving more and more every time I think about it because it is so finely constructed. I haven't even written my review yet, but I can tell you right now, that nothing I or any reviewer could write would be able to capture the beauty of Jordan Dane's writing in this book, certainly not without creating spoilers.

No One Left to Tell for me is also an example of why I think number ratings on books just never can tell a person very much. A rating for this book: 5+. I have notes and underlinings all over my copy of this book, and even that cannot truly be distilled down to a review that does this book justice. For me, great books are all about words expanding outwards into something beyond the words on the page. In this respect, No One Left To Tell is hauntingly beautiful too. My second book by her.... the second book that wowwed me big time. I just feel like this author's writing clicks with me on a deep level, sort of how Rita Herron did last year... the kind of writer that stirs my soul as well as my reading pleasure.

AKA Merri
Family Challenge Team: The Spine Breakers with my dh Glenn AKA Phaedrus