Twenty-seven years ago, Sheriff Bree Taggert’s father killed her mother, then himself. Now Bree and her younger brother, Adam, find human bones on the grounds of their abandoned family farm. The remains are those of a man and a woman, both murdered in the same horrible way.

When the investigation determines the murders occurred thirty years ago, Bree’s dead father becomes a suspect, forcing Bree to revisit the brutal night she’s spent most of her life trying to forget. The only other suspect is an unlikely squatter on the Taggert farm who claims to know secrets about Bree’s past. When he mysteriously disappears and Bree’s niece is kidnapped, the cold case heats up.

Bree has stoked the rage of a murderer who’ll do anything to keep his identity—and motives—a secret. To protect everyone she loves, Bree must confront a killer.

To my surprise, the Bree Taggert series has become a comfort read for me. The mysteries are solid but not startling. The emotional content is delivered with all the subtlety of a flashing neon light. And yet, I keep coming back. 

Partly it’s because the action scenes are well done and there’s just enough tension to keep me turning the pages without getting stressed out. 

I think it’s mostly because Melinda Leigh delivers stories in which very bad things are done to nice people by violent men with no redeeming characteristics, but it never becomes a gorefest because she balances all of that with moments of decency, kindness, friendship, family, and hope. 

‘Right Behind Her’ was full of bad men doing awful things. For the most part, it was the women and the girls who held them to account and did their best to repair the damage. I found it easy to cheer for that.

I know how unlikely it is that the cases Bree investigates keep becoming so personal, with strong links to her past and threats to her present. I let it pass because keeping the cases personal is a way of moving the story of Bree and her family forward. Melina Leigh’s storytelling means that I’m much more invested in what happens to them than I am in solving a murder.