"The First Wife"

"The First Wife" was my introduction to the author Erica Spindler's work and I look forward to reading more of her novels in the future.

After nursing her mother through a fatal illness, our heroine, Bailey Browne, vacations in the Grand Cayman's before returning to her life and future in Broken Bow, Nebraska.  However, a storybook romance with Logan Abbott, ten years her senior, is just what she dreamed of as a child.  When she meets Logan, they fall hard for each other and spend all their time together.  When it is time for her to go home, Logan proposes and urges her to marry him and move to his Louisiana horse farm.

Bailey accepts but isn't prepared for a cold welcome by his sister or the history of loss in Logan's family.  There's also a a local police office, Billy Ray Williams, who is convinced Logan's first wife didn't leave him but was killed by him instead.  He also believes all the young women who have gone missing in the last few years are dead -- also at the hands of Logan.

Who does Bailey believe, Billy Ray who appears intent on a vendetta against Logan, or her new husband?  This story is full of twists and turns - murders and disappearances -- and a family history that isn't what it seems.

When Bailey has an accident and temporarily loses her memory and an old hand at the ranch is murdered at the same time, everything starts coming to a head.  Logan is arrested then released then arrested again and Billy Ray is sure he's going to get a search warrant for Logan's farm and find the bodies of all the women who went missing.  If you like a mystery with a hint of romance, this is one to read.  pazt