Tidings of Fear by Ericka Scott

 This book was sent to me by Romance Junkies for review.

Lia has been called back to her hometown of Camel Cove, California, after the disappearance of her sister, Sylvie and Sylvie's son, Deion, whom Lia did not even know about. Lia and Sylvie have been estranged for about seven years, soon after the deaths of their parents. Lia had tried to tell Sylvie that she was psychic and thinks that she could have prevented the deaths, but Sylvie thought that Lia was being silly and the two went their separate ways.
Lia became a photojournalist and Sylvie pursued a career working for the government in an agency set up to protect the President from assassination attempts.Lia's career was progressing, but Sylvie's had run into problems and almost resulted in the death of the president. Sylvie had eventually written a book about how women could protect themselves from harm and it had become a best-seller.
Sylvie had been living with her lover, Margaret, and therefore, Lia wasn't sure how the birth of Deion was handled, whether through an affair or an adoption.
Lia finds herself involved again with a professor that she had a torrid affair with when she attended college seven years ago. Jared Trimble was her professor and lover and had a huge obsession with crossword puzzles, beyond his ability to attract many female admirers. She also comes to know one of Sylvie's former superiors in the government, Mark Powers, who also has a fascination with crosswords.
All of the 3 characters seem to have their own suppositions about the disappearance of Sylvie and her son. The local paper has had crosswords in recent months that have clues in them about the disappearance and murders of 7 other women and their children and the most recent puzzle contains the names of Sylvie and Deion.
The story is a quick read, although I found the characters not to be fleshed out much. There are many suppositions made during the book that lead you to believe some things and not really understand why you are led to believe them. But that is what a mystery is supposed to be about, right?
The writing is good, you want to turn the page and figure it out and that is what it's supposed to do.

erickascott.com