Danger in the Hills

My Rating: 3/5

Review: While I did enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Black Hills, I couldn't help but feel that this book tended to drag a little bit. There was too much down time between suspenseful scenes, and the romance didn't really add much to the story. I kept waiting for the nail-biting suspense, but it rarely came. In fact, there wasn't much suspense at all until the last couple of chapters. I liked the story of Lil, and her wildlife refuge. I liked the family camaraderie, and the little coming of age set-up with Lil and Coop in the beginning. I did not like how long it took to get to the story's climax, however, nor the feeling relief once I'd finally gotten to the end. I expect better from one of my favorite authors of all time. This felt more like a Lifetime movie, then the gritty goodness of her past works.

Book Description: A summer at his grandparents' South Dakota ranch is not eleven-year-old Cooper Sullivan's idea of a good time. But things are a bit more bearable now that he's discovered the neighbor girl, Lil Chance, and her homemade batting cage. Even horseback riding isn't as awful as Coop thought it would be. Each year, with Coop's annual summer visit, their friendship deepens from innocent games to stolen kisses, but there is one shared experience that will forever haunt them: the terrifying discovery of a hiker's body.

As the seasons change and the years roll, Lil stays steadfast to her dreams of becoming a wildlife biologist and protecting her family land, while Coop struggles with his father's demand that he attend law school and join the family firm. Twelve years after they last walked together hand in hand, fate has brought them back to the Black Hills when the people and things they hold most dear need them most.

An investigator in New York, Coop recently left his fastpaced life to care for his aging grandparents and the ranch he has come to call home. Though the memory of his touch still haunts her, Lil has let nothing stop her dream of opening the Chance Wildlife Refuge, but something . . . or someone . . . has been keeping a close watch. When small pranks and acts of destruction escalate into the heartless killing of Lil's beloved cougar, recollections of an unsolved murder in these very hills have Coop springing to action to keep Lil safe.

Lil and Coop both know the natural dangers that lurk in the wild landscape of the Black Hills. But now they must work together to unearth a killer of twisted and unnatural instincts who has singled them out as prey.