Kate & Blake vs The Ghost Town
Title: Kate & Blake vs The Ghost
Town
Author: Dakota Kahn
Genre: Adult Romantic Mystery
Rating: Four Stars
Kate Becker flees the big city chaos
of San Francisco to return to her hometown for the same peace and quiet she had
hoped to escape from not too terribly long ago. But there’s an opportunity for her
to do some good as the local public defense attorney and of course, there’s
Blake, her high school sweetheart turned fiancé. As one of sheriff deputies in
Whispering Pines, Blake’s job is pretty laid back, so Kate foresees nothing but
a lifetime of simplicity and wedded bliss for their future. That is until the
local ghost town is picked to be the site of a major new resort, with two
developers bidding for the rights to build there.
The residents of Whispering Pines are
none too pleased by the prospect of a garish resort, and just as Kate decides
to join the fight to save her town, one of the developers is murdered — right on
the gaudy gallows he had erected weeks before. Most of the townsfolk are
immediately convinced that the crime was committed by a local, and somewhat
legendary, homeless man, but Kate knows that Rip is innocent, so she goes about
solving the case in a quirky, comical, and slightly clumsy manner. Naturally, Blake
is on her side and helps as much as he can, but it seems that nearly everyone
else in town is out to railroad her investigation so that the problem just
goes away, but Kate is determined to find out the truth regardless of the
consequences.
It’s all very cute and sort of
whimsical, and I adore how much Kate loves Blake. Their romance feels genuine,
and the mystery aspect of the novel is also well-played, keeping the reader
guessing until the end. Overall, while I’m not too sure that a real attorney
would be so actively involved in an investigation — whether because of ethics or
a slew of legalities — this book was a pleasant read.
