A review by shammons
Standoff by Patricia Bradley

4.0

I have been wanting to read a book by Patricia Bradley for a while. My library has her Logan Point series available digitally, but I had just not gotten to them on my very long TBR list. I was so excited to see this one offered as a Bonus Borrow in the month of November from Hoopla. I grabbed it on the last day of the month and finally got to it in my queue. To be fair, it took me a few days to "get into" the characters and the story. I do not in any way think that is a reflection of the author or the book, but more the busy time of year and lack of time for reading (as well as a very divided attention span these days). Once I settled in and learned all of the characters, I was hooked. I only live a couple of hours from Natchez, so reading about so many familiar places was a treat for me. This was a well crafted mystery, and I was kept guessing until the end (I had narrowed it down to two people and one of them was our bad guy). This book introduces us to Brooke Danvers, a National Park ranger in Natchez, whose father is also a ranger. Brooke is switching from interpretive history to LE (law enforcement) after completing her training, and is looking forward to working with her dad, whom she adores. Her next door neighbor's grandson, Luke Fereday, also pops up in town (they had a thing when they were teenagers), but something doesn't sit quite right with Brooke where Luke is concerned. We have undercover agents, drug cartels, state representatives, murder, explosions, wrecks and all sorts of mayhem to wade through before it is all resolved at the end. Looking forward to reading book 2, about Brooke's friend and fellow ranger Emma, in the second book entitled Obsession.