In San Antonio, U.S. Attorney's Office Investigator Daniel Martinez and his estranged wife Nicole attend the wedding of Ray and Susana (see A Deadly Wilderness). The bride's son Marco Acosta asks Police Detective Deborah Smith where his Tio Daniel is. The upset child explains to his Tio and Deborah that Daniel's foster son, eight-year-old Benny, is missing. Evidence points to a kidnapping.

While Daniel desperately searches for Benny before the lad is trafficked or killed, Deborah and her police partner Alex Luna find a child's skeleton on Ray's ranch. While the two cops try to find the child and to solve a cold case homicide that has become hot, Daniel, also investigating the abduction knows time is running out for his Benny.

This sequel is a gritty police procedural that looks deep into the visible underbelly of the city and the more discrete but as ugly rural areas. Besides the urban gangbangers, there is also plenty of drug and other illegal trafficking on the back country roads. Although the romantic subplot seems out of place and rushed, the condemnation is for an under staffed overworked foster care system in which politicos only give a sh*t when a media incident occurs. Readers will enjoy this dark Texas thriller.

-Harriet Klausner

It was suppose to be a dream come true, celebrating a marriage, but it soon deteriorated into a nightmare. Detective Daniel Martinez’s foster son is kidnapped and while searching for him, the bones of a small child is found on the groom’s property where the wedding reception is taking place. Daniel’s partner, Deborah Smith, and Detective Alex Luna found the skeleton. Added to the frantic investigation of the two cases is the personal conflicts of the investigative team. Deborah is fighting alcoholism and her attraction to Daniel while Alex yearns to start a relationship with Deborah. Daniel is fighting to keep his own marriage together while he works desperately to find his foster son Benny.

Suspense writer Kelly Irvin immediately captures her readers’ attention on the first page, ratcheting up our adrenaline as a defenseless child is kidnapped. Emotions run the gambit from horror to apprehension to relief as we are drawn into the investigation of the crime, the terror of the kidnapped child, and the complexity of the personal lives involved. As in Kelly Irvin’s other novels, keeping the faith is a prime factor and one that helps her characters persevere and thrive. From the very beginning, tension builds and does not abate until the last page is turned of Irvin’s thrilling NO CHILD OF MINE.