Close Enough to Kill

If you love steamy romantic suspense novels, you'll love this one from the late Beverly Barton, who passed away almost a year ago this April. In Adams Landing, Alabama, there's a serial killer on the loose, who's admiring women from afar, leaving presents and ghastly sketches. Once he kidnapped them, he tortures and raped them for a week to two weeks ago, and kills them. It's up to Bernadette "Bernie" Granger, the new Sheriff, and her new deputy sheriff, Jim Norton, formerly from the Nashville PD. Jim has some excess baggage from his ex-wife and estrangement with his son, while Bernie is competing with her younger sister for Jim's affections. But when the serial killer targets the women, they realized that there's a connection to him and who's in the fold that's been breaching their security, especially when it's closer to Bernie's family. Together they discover who it is and find the happiness they need.