Review: Dying Scream by Mary Burton

Title: Dying Scream

Author: Mary Burton

# pages: 379

Date published: 2009

Genres: romantic suspense

Rating:

(Very good)

First sentence:

"Time had degraded the videotaped image of the cowering woman."

What’s it about? Two years ago, Adrianna Barrington and her husband, Craig, were in a car accident. Craig suffered massive brain damage and spent the next two years in a coma. When Dying Scream opens, Craig has just died and Adrianna is forced to sell the family estate to pay off his debts. However, not everyone is happy about the sale. Someone has been sending Adrianna cards and flowers and signing Craig's name to them. Adrianna tries to shrug them off as a cruel trick. To make matters worse, the new owner of the family estate has demanded that the family cemetery be relocated and during the grave-moving process the bodies of two missing young women are found. Detective Gage Hudson, who once had an affair with Adrianna and had suspected and questioned Craig about the missing women while he was still alive, is charged with finding the women's identities and murderer. As the body count grows, Adrianna and Gage try to figure out if Craig killed these women? He couldn't still be alive, could he?

Random thoughts: Good book. I figured out who the killer was about 2/3 of the way through, but hadn't completely worked out the whys and hows, so that kept me reading. Dying Scream is the first Mary Burton book I've read. And even though it's not part of a series, per se, I felt like I was missing out on some of the story. So if you like romantic suspense and you're thinking of trying Burton, I'd recommend that you start with I'm Watching You. I haven't read that one, yet, but I intend to as soon as I can find it in eBook format.

About the Author: Mary Burton lives with her family in Central Virginia. She is an avid hiker and enjoys the occasional triathlon.

Fun tidbits:

• Visit Mary Burton’s web site. She has a contest going and you could win your own copy of Dying Scream.
• I just realized that Burton also wrote Cold Case Cop, a Silhouette Romantic Suspense novel I picked up along the way somewhere. Must dig that out of the TBR pile...
• I'd like to thank publicist Joy Strazza of Joan Schulhafer Publishing & Media Consulting for sending me an advanced copy of Dying Scream to read and review.
• If you want to read the books in order:
• I'm Watching You
• Dead Ringer
• Novella Christmas Past in the anthology Silver Bells

Recommended for: If you like romantic suspense or thrillers and authors like Karen Rose, Brenda Novak or Allison Brennan you'd probably enjoy Burton's books, too.