Body of Evidence

An anthropologist gets caught up in an international incident and must later testify against her uncle while fighting off romantic urges toward the man who rescued her, but is also her uncle’s lead prosecutor.

The second in Grant’s (Concrete Evidence, 2013, etc.) series is a fast-paced suspense novel with a budding romance. It starts in media res; the protagonist, Mara Garrett, who has dedicated her life to searching for the remains of lost American soldiers, faces a death sentence in a North Korean courtroom. At the last moment, U.S. Attorney Curt Dominick saves Garrett from the firing squad. Dominick is prosecuting her father-figure uncle, who’s a former U.S. vice president, on charges related to war crimes. The following pages are overstuffed with plot twists and action—biological warfare, murder, car chases, political posturing and plenty of explosions. Grant, a four-time Golden Heart Award finalist and archaeologist, uses her experience in the field to describe the excavation scenes carried out by Garrett’s Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command team. The politicking, courtroom questioning and military knowledge are also well-researched. The dialogue between Garrett and her love interest not only builds their relationship, but also gives their characters complexity. As Garrett and Dominick crisscross the country to piece together their mystery while dodging their deaths, a new, yet plausible, wrench gets thrown into the already taut storyline. Inevitably, the couple makes it to Washington, D.C., where the courtroom drama comes to a head and all loose ends are neatly tied.

An exhilarating read that could easily be a blockbuster on the screen.