Justice at Cardwell Ranch by B.J. Daniels

Ok, so I won the fourth book in this series in a giveaway, and now I'm reading the three before it in order to get prepared.  I have mixed feelings about it.  They're set in a wonderful place, but the characters leave much to be desired.

Jordan Cardwell is back in town because of a buddy and a mysterious phone call.  So when Liza finds him standing over the dead body of his buddy, things do not get off to a good start.  But Joran's charming, and there doesn't seem to be a feasible way that his friend was murdered by him which means there's a killer at large.  And this is a killer who doesn't want Liza solving the crime. 

In the first book Jordan took his sister by the shoulders and shook her.  And I seem to be the only one who remembers this.  At least out of a pool of myself and the book characters.  So how does he end up the likable protagonist in this book?  It kind of angers me as that was physical abuse and it never comes up again and everything is sunshine and rainbows.  Liza at least is a good character and knows what she wants.  I liked how she made decisions and followed through with them.  It showed she has guts and is a realistic thinker.  We have some of the characters from the first book as well, but they are toned down quite a bit.  Which is probably because six years pass in between the last book and this one. 

Again, I love that these books take place in an area of Montana I'm familiar with.  I've even been to Ousel Falls and having that personal connection makes it sort of special.  Although I do have to wonder why she kept saying "down" to Bozeman and "up" to West Yellowstone.  Bozeman is North and West Yellowstone is South.  The pace in this book was rather fast and jumbled and I thought the ending was a bit unbelievable.  Again, what is going on with the water in that town?  They have more than their fair share of crazy people. There's a little side plot in this book involving Dana's sister that I thought was actually more interesting than the main plot.  It was all very mysterious but then it was resolved pretty quickly too.

I've got the third book in my hands so I'll read it.  But I'd only give this one about 2.5 stars.  Hopefully they improve by the time I get to the fourth one (or the next)!

Justice at Cardwell Ranch
Copyright 2012
216 pages