Review: Veil of Night by Linda Howard

Veil of Night
Linda Howard
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: August 10, 2010
Format: Audio Book
Source: Public Library
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Characters: Jaclyn Wilde, Eric Wilder
My Rating:

Jaclyn Wilde is a wedding planner who loves her job—usually. But helping Carrie Edwards with her Big Day has been an unrelenting nightmare. Carrie is a bridezilla of mythic nastiness, a diva whose tantrums are just about as crazy as her demands. But the unpleasant task at hand turns seriously criminal when Carrie is brutally murdered and everyone involved with the ceremony is accusing one another of doing the deed.

The problem is, most everyone—from the cake maker and the florist to the wedding-gown retailer and the bridesmaids’ dressmaker—had his or her own reason for wanting the bride dead, including Jaclyn. And while those who felt Carrie’s wrath are now smiling at her demise, Jaclyn refuses to celebrate tragedy, especially since she finds herself in the shadow of suspicion.

Assigned to the case, Detective Eric Wilder finds that there’s too much evidence pointing toward too many suspects. Compounding his problems is Jaclyn, with whom he shared one deeply passionate night before Carrie’s death. Being a prime suspect means that Jaclyn is hands-off just when Eric would rather be hands-on. As the heat intensifies between Eric and Jaclyn, a cold-blooded murderer moves dangerously close. And this time the target is not a bride but one particularly irresistible wedding planner, unaware of a killer’s vow.

Jaclyn is a wedding planner and her most difficult client is found dead right after she has an altercation with her. The detective that shows up on her doorstep to work the case is none other than the hot detective she spent a very steamy night with the night before the murder. This devastates Jaclyn because she thinks Det. Eric Wilder believes she’s a murderer.

Eric knows that Jaclyn Wilde is innocent, but he also knows that because of his intimate knowledge of her he has to look at her harder than any other suspect.

Veil of Night started out on point from page one. There was no great lag in the beginning of the story before getting to the point of the story. Linda Howard provided lots of details of the weddings Jaclyn and her mother planned, that it gave the feel of just that being a story in and of itself.

I loved the chemistry between Jaclyn and Eric, but more than that I enjoyed them as characters standing alone. I immediately liked them both.

I never have any complaints when it comes to a Linda Howard novel and this one is no different. Watching the scenes unfold in her novels is like watching a great movie. This is definitely one to keep and read and re-read.