"No One Left to Tell," Karen Rose

Pros: Larger-than-life blend of action, romance, and mystery
Cons: Larger-than-life and melodramatic
Rating: 4 out of 5

Review book courtesy of Penguin Group

PI Paige Holden took on a pro bono client—a woman she knows who believes that her son is innocent of the terrible crime he was convicted of. The case seems like a dead end until the woman’s minivan crashes right in front of Paige, and she sees that the woman’s been shot. The woman’s final words and actions send Paige on a collision course with a very high-profile case and some extremely dangerous people.

Five years ago, State’s Attorney Grayson Smith felt satisfied that he had put a murderer in jail and made the streets just that much safer. But when Paige gives him her evidence and tells him what she knows, he starts to doubt himself—and those he works with. Before long, the two of them are largely hiding out with help from Grayson’s adoptive family, hoping to figure out who the bad guys really are before it’s too late.

I’ll get the negative out of the way first: the melodrama in Karen Rose’s No One Left to Tell is definitely larger-than-life. Everyone is hiding life-shattering secrets, has been through incredibly traumatic events, and/or leads a much larger-than-life existence. Okay, so I put that down as both a positive and a negative, because while it stretches any kind of credibility, it’s often some of the fun of this kind of book for readers. So make your own decision there based on whether you think it would annoy you. For me it stepped over the line a little.

That said, otherwise I very much enjoyed this thriller. It includes a few characters from Rose’s You Belong to Me around the periphery, which is fun. I also enjoyed the interactions between Paige and Grayson. In particular I found the personality and the identity of the sniper in this story fascinating, as well as his motives and how he handles everything that happens. My only difficulty with him was that in at least one case, I felt that he should have more easily been able to take someone out.

There’s plenty of action, drama, romance, sex, and danger, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend No One Left to Tell to a fan of the genre.