Promise Not to Tell Jayne Ann Krentz

Published: Hachette Aus/Piatkus
Date: 2nd January 2018
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 338
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Source: Hachette Australia via NetGalley
Rating:
                  

Seattle gallery owner Virginia Troy has spent years battling the demons that stem from her childhood time in a cult and the night a fire burned through the compound, killing her mother. And now one of her artists has taken her own life, but not before sending Virginia a last picture: a painting that makes Virginia doubt everything about the so-called suicide - and her own past.

Like Virginia, private investigator Cabot Sutter was one of the children in the cult who survived that fire... and only he can help her now. As they struggle to unravel the clues in the painting, it becomes clear that someone thinks Virginia knows more than she does and that she must be stopped. Thrown into an inferno of desire and deception, Virginia and Cabot draw ever closer to the mystery of their shared memories - and the shocking fate of the one man who still wields the power to destroy everything they hold dear.

Promise not to Tell by Jayne Ann Krentz is #2 in her Cutler, Sutter and Salinas series. This one is about Cabot Sutter, one of three men, who as a boy was rescued at a crime scene and adopted by their rescuer.   

Has the mad cult driven Quinton Zane returned? Why has a woman gone off a cliff? And so the mystery and the suspense begins.  Virginia and Cabot combine to follow the clues.  Virginia was also there that horrible night when fire almost engulfed them as children, she now runs an art gallery and has had contact with the artist who is now dead after going off the cliff. 

Virginia and Cabot are a great couple. They have been together as children, suffer from the same horrific experience in their childhood, so they understand each other and the way they still suffer from that now in adulthood. Each was very compassionate towards the other. As they work on the case, they grow in their relationship. I liked how there was no false parting and then reuniting due to some mistaken issue. 

I really enjoyed as well Cabot's issue with his family, his grandfather disowned his mother when she went off to do her own thing, but now he is dead, and there is some new happenings. Greatest of all a surprise visit from one relative - one who soon became very much part of the story.

The mystery kept me guessing, I thought it was all clear early on, but no - plenty of twists and turns and a very good set up for the next book as well. The plot moved along at a great clip, moving from one event to another with speed, which kept me turning the pages.

The kind of suspense I like - not too graphic in the gory detail, and characters who worm there way into my heart. I am certainly looking forward to the next one in the series.