Kill and Tell: A Novel (CIA Spies Series Book 1)

This romantic suspense is one of LH's best reads, with a to-die-for sexy New Orleans southern gentleman cop as the hero, and a feisty ER nurse as the heroine. The suspense is very believable and keeps you on the edge of your seat, with secondary characters who all add to the story in rich ways. But scoot back in that chair when it comes to the sex scenes, or you'll land on the floor, lol. They're hot, hot, hot and yet oh, so tender.

I've read and re-read this story, and it always delivers.

3.5 stars

+ great scenery
+ hot hero
+ exciting action

- crazy fast insta-love
- half of book spent on boring characters

I think I would have loved this book if it was JUST the romance. I didn't really enjoy the suspense portion of this book, and since half of the book was spent with a range of characters that I didn't care about, I often found myself skimming sentences to move the story. Only half of the book was spent on the main characters, and they only spent a handful of days together. I wish their romance had stretched out a bit. I loved their chemistry and romance, but I just can't imagine (SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) getting engaged in a week, much less wanting to have his babies on the fourth day together.

Marc was very sexy with his southern charm, and I can see why she fell for him. I think you could certainly argue that he walked the line of manipulation, though. Overall, I'd give him a B+.

Karen Whitlaw is still trying to get over her mother's recent death when she gets a package addressed to her mother from her estranged father, Dexter. He's a Vietnam War veteran who never recovered from his war experience and she hasn't seen him in almost 20 years. She puts the package away without giving the contents much thought and sets off a chain of events completely out of her control. When she's notified of her father's murder, Karen goes to New Orleans to identify his body. We learn at the beginning of the story, from Dexter's perspective, that he was murdered and who actually killed him. Karen is an unwitting participant in an attempt to coverup something her father was involved in and is apparently in the package she received before his death.

This story was much more romance than mystery and suspense but I still enjoyed it. Karen ends up being a pretty tough woman and Mark Chastain, the New Orleans detective handling Dexter's murder, is highly appealing, both as an investigator and a romantic interest.

I enjoyed the story, even though there were a few plot holes and unexplained events and characters. I'd recommend reading it for the romance, which was pretty steamy, versus high suspense. I do plan to read the next book in the series, which involves a character introduced in this story, John Medina, who was an enigma.

I enjoyed this book not for its suspense-laden pages where you couldn't put it down - there wasn't much of that; not for its mystery angle where the reader couldn't figure out the bad guy - it was pretty obvious; but for its overall combination of mystery, romance and just plain old "feel good" type story line. This is the type of book that makes you go "ah" at the end.

Linda Howard has a knack for blending romance and mystery, but tends to lean a bit more towards the romance angle of the story. In Kill and Tell she weaves a tale about Karen Whitlaw, a nurse with an interesting family background. Karen's father came home from the Vietnam War to his wife and child as a changed man. Upon his return, he never seemed to be able to fit back into a normal life like so many soldiers from that era and chose to leave his family and live on the streets in various cities. He'd bounce back every couple of years for short periods of time, but Karen had since decided that she'd rather not have anything to do with a man that could abandon his wife and child. It had been 20 plus years since she'd seen her father, when this saga begins.

A few weeks after Karen's mother dies, her grieving is interrupted when a package arrives from her father addressed to her mother. Karen tosses it into a box with some of her mother's belongings and conveniently forgets that it's there. She doesn't even remember the box when she's called a short time later by a New Orleans detective, Marc Chastain, and told that her father has been murdered. Ok, so this is a tad unbelievable, but I'll chock it up to shock on Karen's part, as it's a minor flaw in the plot.

Karen flies down to New Orleans to identify her father's body and make arrangements for burial. When she meets the gorgeous Marc with the bedroom voice, her heart goes thump and so begins the true plot of this book - an unlikely romance between Karen and Marc. It's love at first sight, with them both ignoring the signs and symptoms (typical romance scheme). We're taken on a sensual journey of seduction as Marc tries to win over the elusive Karen. After a passionate night of sexual exploration, Karen bolts from New Orleans and flees back to Ohio.

Ok, so that would have been an interesting journey, but instead Howard brings back the mystery portion and puts the romance on the back burner. Seems someone wants a "kill book" that was in the box sent to Karen and will go to any means to obtain it, including killing her. After two attempts on her life, Karen races back to New Orleans and into the arms of her knight in shining armor.

Kill and Tell is not for the die-hard mystery fans, as there is more romantic adventures than intrigue. It's a nice blend and an enjoyable read. If you're a mystery buff, then you won't be fooled at all by the attempt to disguise the true villain. If you want a good romance with hot and steamy scenes, punctuated by a bit of "who dunit" to keep the story interesting, then Kill and Tell is the novel for you! If you're looking for a hard-core mystery, find a different book.

I really liked this particular book of Linda Howards. The heroine doesn't do anything stupid -apart from running out on the delightful hero once - to get herself into more trouble, as do so many romantic heroines these days and I liked that her working life as a nurse was realistic. The other thing she does is turn to the hero when she's got good reason to. Most modern novels have the heroine taking care of it herself and then having to be rescued.

The hero in this book is not rich - he does have an old home and belongs to an old southern family - but I was very taken with the fact that at the start of the book, he tells a fellow detective that he couldn't afford to keep it so had to divide it into apartments! Although he is a tough cop, he is not abusive to the heroine and very sympathetic to victims of crime.

There was only one question which wasn't answered - and maybe I missed this - where did the father's money go after he was murdered? Why did he not leave it to his wife? This did not detract from my enjoyment of the book, it only occurred to me after I had finished reading.

All in all, a darned good read!

I really like how the story never slowed down & was always throwing in new people/new elements that I had to keep up with. No skimming here! You'd definitely miss something!
I can't really call it a murder mystery, although there is lots of murder in it - because I knew who was behind the murders, I just didn't know why. The suspense, however, kept my eyebrows raised more than once. I suppose that the reason I could handle this book with all the murder & gore, when I can't handle others, is because this one didn't have the evil element that so many do. No ritualistic killings, no torture, that kind of stuff - that type of thing IS NOT entertainment to me. This was simply 'Bang - he's dead!' lol However, LH did describe the after effects of the bang.... hence, NOT a light read.
Anyway, the romance was really great also, definitely not fun & light-hearted, but really good (& really hot!) I totally enjoyed LH's descriptions of New Orleans & the atmosphere she was able to conjure up for me. It really made me want to go back to New Orleans & wander slowly through The Quarter. I will have to say that I thought Marc & Karen fell for each other a little too fast for reality.... but I really liked both characters & LH somehow made it ok with me.
Ok, NOT my usual light, fun read.... but Linda Howard had me riveted anyway! This one was just as good as the 2 previous books I read by LH (Mr. Perfect & Open Season) - but it did differ BIG in two ways: The other 2 were mainly romances with a suspense/thriller story thrown in........ Kill and Tell is mainly a suspense/thriller with a romance thrown in; The other way it differed was that it was not a funny one like the other two.
A definite recommend if you do murder/action/adventure/romance! (or whatever you call it! lol)