Book Review: "Murder in Plain Sight" by Marta Perry

Summary from BN.com: Did a sweet-faced Amish teenager brutally murder a young woman? To save her career, big-city lawyer Jessica Langdon is determined to defend him—against the community's bitter and even violent outrage. Yet without an understanding of Amish culture, Jessica must rely on arrogant businessman Trey Morgan, who has ties to the Amish community… and believes in the boy's guilt.

Jessica has threats coming from all sides: a local fanatic, stirred up by the biased publicity of the case; the dead girl's boyfriend; even from the person she's learned to trust the most, Trey Morgan. But just when Jessica fears she's placed her trust in the wrong man, Trey saves her life. And now they must both reach into a dangerous past to protect everyone's future—including their own.

While I do read a lot of Amish books, I really want to read more books that feature them that are not faith based. I don't want to feel like I'm getting preached at while reading the story. Interestingly all the non faith based Amish books that I have read have all been in the suspense drama, usually with someone being murdered. I find this a bit amusing.

Jessica is a young lawyer from Philadelphia who comes to Amish country to defend a young Amish man accused of murder. It's an unusual case and she finds herself having to understand the Amish and their ways so she can represent him better. Along the way she finds herself the target of attacks as well. I have read Perry's books before including several of her Amish series. I have enjoyed her books because I felt like she doesn't romanticize the Amish way of life and she also incorporates scenarios not seen in other Amish books. This story is no different as the reader never feels that Perry is trying to portray the Amish as the only right way.

To be honest, the romantic subplot didn't really hold my interest. Trey got on my nerves sometimes so I felt like I wanted to gloss over some of their scenes together. I was more focused on finding the killer and the suspense parts of the story. The romance seemed a bit lackluster but doesn't feel forced either. I guess I just wished it was more of straight up suspense novel as opposed to being romantic suspense.

Overall this is a nicely written suspense novel. The suspense scenes are done well and you probably won't guess the killer until the very end. The scenes with the Amish show you how they live without forcing beliefs on you. As I stated I felt the romance could have been a bit better but didn't deter from the story. I have always liked Perry's writing and I'm glad that there are more books to be read in this series.

Murder in Plain Sight by Marta Perry is published by HQN Books (2011)

This review copy was provided by the Amazon Vine program