Review – Burden of Proof

If you’re looking for a fast-paced, character driven, romantic suspense super-charged with duplicitous intrigue, corruption and murder, Diann Mills latest release, “Burden of Proof” fits the bill. Not only is it a complex action suspense filled with unforeseen surprises, twists and turns it also includes touches of humor, spirituality and subtle romance.

However, none of that was on Special Agent April Ramos’s mind as she raced up six flights of apartment house stairs to the rooftop where a man threatened to jump. As negotiator, the SWAT team had told her the man had been laid off from work just short of retirement, his name was Benson and there had been a family dispute. April had only lost one person in the six years she’d worked hostage negotiation and she was determined Benson wouldn’t be the second.

She didn’t yet know that Benson would indeed be her second or that after three hours of negotiation she would be standing in line at a nearby coffee shop hoping something sweet would distract her from the emotional toll she’d just experienced.

That’s when a distraught young woman thrust a crying baby into April’s arms and said, “Take her…I’m done with her” and then disappeared

Shocked and concerned, April cradled the crying baby and tried to comfort her. Then a distraught man jogged up, said he was the father and accused her of kidnapping his daughter.

After a sharp exchange April told him she was an FBI agent and the baby would remain in her care until she found the legal guardian. The man then opened his jacket and showed April a gun. He warned her not to reach for her weapon, told her to follow him and whispered, “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Thus, begins a roller-coaster account of kidnapping, deception and murder. Where a hostage negotiator is taken hostage, a kidnapped baby is lost, found and lost again, a crooked sheriff and well-done frame job are wrapped in a sinister story of small-town corruption where nothing is as it seems.

Besides being a refreshing “clean read,” without swearing and sexual innuendo,the unpredictable plot, realistic characters and subtle touches of humor, faith and romance keep the pages turning long after lights should go out! Mills has added yet another winner to her growing roster of romantic thrillers, perhaps the best one yet.