Bethany House Publishers was nice enough to send me another free book to review. Have I mentioned how much I love this program? It means I get fun snail mail, motivation to read and write, and a free book! I love free books!

The book they sent me to review this time was a mystery by Carol Cox called  Love in Disguise.  Overall, I’d have to say that this book lacked the intensity of a good mystery. Mysteries (in my opinion) should have me biting my nails as I nervously come across clues, try to catch the mischief makers, and keep up with the detective.  With a good mystery, I should be dying to know what comes next.

My explanation behind the slow pace of this mystery is that the majority of the tension is revealed on the back cover. The back cover explains that the main female character (Ellie Moore) must pretend to be two different characters in order to investigate a case of thievery in the Wild West. Both of her disguised characters are targeted by the ne’er-do-wells and thieves. The main male character (Steven Pierce) falls in love with Ellie disguised as the “vivacious” Jesse Monroe. He has no clue a girl named Ellie exists.

This simple summary covers three-fourths of the book.

Admittedly, the conflict resolution in the last few chapters is interesting. However, it was not interesting enough to make up for the slow pace of the rest of the novel. Therefore, it’s unlikely that I’ll read more by this author or recommend this book to friends and family.