In Shadow Ridge, book one of the Jo Wyatt Mystery Series, author M.E. Browning transports the reader to Echo Valley, Colorado, for an intriguing mystery story that will keep the reader guessing and turning the pages.

Detective Jo Wyatt gets the call to investigate a possible suicide case of Tye Horton, a college student and popular video game designer. Quinn Kirkwood, Tye's friend and fellow gaming college discovered his dead body when he didn't show up for class to present a group project. What looks like a classic suicide case is anything but that when Quinn tells Jo that she is being threatened by an online stalker, and when another gaming beta-tester member dies, Jo's investigation ultimately leads her to believe that this is not a case of suicide, but rather a murder case with a killer determined to seek revenge.

Author M.E. Browning weaves a slow-building and suspenseful tale that follows Jo's investigation to uncover the truth behind the deaths of a few members of a gaming beta-testers group. I loved reading this action-packed story. Jo's observations and detail to the police procedure used within the investigation into the beta-tester group members' deaths kept me intrigued as she slowly put the pieces of the mystery puzzle together.

The reader will be easily drawn into this richly descriptive plot that will keep them guessing as long hidden secrets, family dramas, a growing list of possible suspects, motives, and clues are uncovered, while leaving the reader completely shocked by the surprise ending. And if that's not enough, Jo also has to deal with personal issues of being separated from her husband Cameron Finch, while also dealing with being passed over for the police department's sergeant position by her soon to be ex-husband.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention how much I enjoyed reading about Quinn Kirkwood's backstory, and the reason why she had such a sarcastic attitude and need for self-protection, and how her contributions to the investigation helped Jo unravel the mystery into the group members' deaths.

I look forward to reading the next book in the Jo Wyatt Mystery Series.

Shadow Ridge has enough drama, tension, action, dark secrets, intrigue, and unexpected twists and turns that will take the reader on one heck of a thrilling roller coaster ride.

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Shadow Ridge is an atmospheric mystery with a sprinkling of drama and a twist of ‘I didn’t see that coming.’

Detective Jo Wyatt feels perfectly human. She’s smart and driven, but also flawed in ways that make sense for her character.

The plot is complex and realistic, with little details sprinkled throughout that add life and depth to the story.

This is an easy story to fall into. The writing is engaging and thought-provoking, without forcing me to think too hard.

Shadow Ridge is the first book in the Jo Wyatt Mystery Series. I’m looking forward to the next one! ( )

This book has everything you could possibly want in a police procedural mystery. Appealing, life-like characters. Snappy dialogue. A plot as twisty as the icy Rocky Mountain roads, and as dangerous, too: one slip, one wrong turn, and you might find yourself tumbling over a sheer cliff, plummeting toward death . . .

That’s a bit of an exaggeration. You won’t die from reading this book. But you’ll feel the increasing danger and wonder whether the characters will survive to the last page.

I’ll be honest. It took me a while to warm to Detective Jo Wyatt and for a while, I was afraid this would put me off the entire book.

For the first few chapters, I found her initial suspicious and (at points) hostile attitude toward Quinn off-putting. She’s a detective doing a difficult job amid her own heartbreak and disappointments. I sympathized with that. At the same time, it was hard for me, someone outside the police force, to understand why her first reaction to everyone is suspicion.

But by half-way through the book, I grew to like her. I understood that she is policing in Echo Valley, her hometown. That comes with advantages–she’s familiar with the people–and major disadvantages–she’s expected to ignore certain crimes because of the perpetrator’s identity. Once that clicked into place for me, so did Jo’s character.

All the characters are complicated people. Even the minor characters, such as Jo’s father, are developed. Browning has the ability to craft uncannily-life-like characters who drive the story with a building momentum. This gives Shadow Ridge an energy that is sometimes missing in more paint-by-numbers procedurals.

Browning makes great use of her own background in law enforcement. There are some tantalizing details about cop habits and behavior. The book feels like the author knows how homicide investigations work, and has dealt with the frustrations and fears, unknowns and unknowable aspects of any unnatural death. It struck me that Browning isn’t only concerned with the detective catching the bad guys, as is standard for police procedurals. She’s also concerned with the societal responsibility of a cop to see people as people.

I believe this is the first in a series. With such rich, deep characters and an intriguing setting, there’s plenty of material for future stories. I enjoyed Shadow Ridge a great deal and recommend it for all police procedural and mystery lovers.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own. ( )

This book introduces Detective Jo Wyatt of Echo Valley, Colorado. The story begins with her discovering the body of a young college student with her soon-to-be-ex husband. Tye Horton looks like a classic suicide but Jo has a feeling that she's overlooking something.

Quinn Kirkland discovered the body and called it in. She's a fellow student in the same college program - having to do with computer gaming - and she wants the final project that the two of them were woking on. Quinn has problems of her own. She's being cyber-stalked and the threats are getting closer to home. Quinn also has a past which includes heroin use and the death of her police officer mother in the line of duty when she went into a dangerous place to pull Quinn out. Quinn's clean now and has a bad attitude toward the police.

Quinn and Jo butt heads because both of them have attitudes and isues. Jo's marriage is falling apart, her ex got the post of police sargeant that both of them were working toward, and she's facing harassment from other police officers because of her gender. Even her father, a retired police officer, isn't on her side.

But Jo is determined to look into Tye's death and the threats Quinn faces and soon begins to believe that the cases are linked and have something to do with a computer game Tye had written. When a suicide from one year earlier is linked to the cases and the third member of the group working on the game dies too, Jo knows she has to hurry to find the killer before Quinn becomes the next victim.

I liked this book a lot. Jo is a great character. I liked that she was willing to put up with the harassment in order to do a job she loves. I liked her persistence and determination to bring a killer to justice. I look forward to reading more about Jo in future books. ( )