Review: Keep Her Safe by KA Tucker

Making a Murderer meets Scandal in this story of police corruption, family secrets, and illicit affairs from bestselling author K.A. Tucker, celebrated for her “propulsive plot twists and searing seduction” (USA TODAY).

Noah Marshall has known a privileged and comfortable life thanks to his mother, the highly decorated chief of the Austin Police Department. But all that changes the night she reveals a skeleton that's been rattling in her closet for years, and succumbs to the guilt of destroying an innocent family's life. Reeling with grief, Noah is forced to carry the burden of this shocking secret.

Gracie Richards wasn't born in a trailer park, but after fourteen years of learning how to survive in The Hollow, it's all she knows anymore. At least here people don't care that her dad was a corrupt Austin cop, murdered in a drug deal gone wrong. Here, she and her mother are just another family struggling to survive...until a man who clearly doesn't belong shows up on her doorstep.

Despite their differences, Noah and Gracie are searching for answers to the same questions, and together, they set out to uncover the truth about the Austin Police Department's dark and messy past. But the scandal that emerges is bigger than they bargained for, and goes far higher up than they ever imagined.

Complex, gritty, sexy, and thrilling, Keep Her Safe solidifies K.A. Tucker's reputation as one of today's most talented new voices in romantic suspense.

4 stars
Review by Trinette Dungee

Noah Marshall’s sheltered life has been turned upside down.  What he thought he knew he is no longer sure of. The bad guys might be good and the good guys might be bad. He’s now questioning everything and everyone including his Chief of Police mother and District Attorney Uncle.  Why would his mother feel she didn’t deserve to be Police Chief? Who did she wrong? And why does she have a duffle bag full of cash that should go to someone neither of them has seen in years. These questions lead him to childhood friend Grace Wilkens and unlock doors full of secrets. 

Grace Richards, formally Gracie Wilkens, lives day by day. That’s all she can do when her mother is an addict and they barely know where their next meal will come from. Gracie’s life wasn’t always so rough, but she barely remembers the days she and her mom lived in the suburbs with her police officer father or that they had a really good life before he was murdered and labeled and “dirty cop”.  These days it’s a rundown trailer park that she and her mother call home with a future not so bright. 

When Noah Marshall shows up on her doorstep she is suddenly thrust back into the past to a life she barely remembers to help clear her father’s name. She and Noah must piece together cryptic messages and clues from his mother to uncover a major scandal that a lot of high powered people in Austin, Texas have worked very hard to keep hidden.

 My first introduction to K.A. Tucker was “Until it Fades” which was romantic so I naturally assumed she was a romance writer, uh, not so much. While there was a romantic aspect to this storyline, this was most definitely a mystery/suspense book.  A suspenseful “who-done-it” with a touch of romance is what this was. For as long as I can remember I’ve been reading and I read just about anything but lately I seem to read more Love/romance/erotica; this book however, took me back to my Mary Higgins Clark, James Patterson and John Grisham days and it was a pleasant departure. This was definitely a page turner and kept me guessing the entire time. The flashback scenes sometimes made me move momentum but in the end they definitely helped develop the storyline. I liked all of the characters in this book, even the sleazy cops.

I catalogue this as a cuddle-up-by-the-fireplace type of read. Add it to your Kindle Wish List.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

K.A. Tucker writes captivating stories with an edge. Her books have been featured in national publications including USA TODAY, The Globe and Mail, Suspense Magazine, and Publishers Weekly. She currently resides in a quaint town outside Toronto with her husband and two beautiful girls.