Getting to Know Annalisse Better – My Book Review

A rural New Zealand vacation turns poisonous.

Antiquities expert Annalisse Drury and tycoon Alec Zavos are at an impasse in their relationship when Alec refuses to clear up a paternity issue with an ex-lover.

Frustrated with his avoidance when their future is at stake, Annalisse accepts an invitation from an acquaintance to fly to New Zealand—hoping to escape the recent turbulence in her life.

But even Annalisse’s cottage idyll on the family sheep farm isn’t immune to intrigue.

Alec sends a mutual friend and detective, Bill Drake, to follow her, and a local resident who accompanies them from the Christchurch airport dies mysteriously soon after. A second violent death finds Annalisse and Bill at odds with the official investigations.

The local police want to close both cases as quickly as possible—without unearthing the town’s dirty secrets.

As she and Bill pursue their own leads at serious cost, the dual mysteries force Annalisse to question everything she thought she knew about family ties, politics, and the art of small-town betrayal.

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Author Marlene M. Bell continues her Annalisse series in book 4, Copper Waters. In this book, readers are whisked away to a small part of New Zealand where sheep become a main focus along with a murder or two.

This book centers on Annalisse traveling to New Zealand to hopefully connect with her mother. But she’s not alone on this trip. True to form Bell delivers to her readers an evil that is lurking so close that you never see it coming with the two murders that occur.

While this story is not a transcontinental thrill ride as its forbearers in this series, the pacing is slowed down. But it is slowed down for a significant reason.  Copper Waters is more of an insightful, deeper story about Annalisse. It gives readers of this series a more intimate look into what makes Annalisse tick and why she is the way she is.  Great authors do this with their series taking moments to give better backgrounds on their characters that readers have come to love.

Additionally, this book introduces us more to Bill’s background and character. Le sigh – in a nice way. Where you really are left begging for a future book around him alone. This book shows that Annalisse and Bill make an outstanding team at being detectives of who was actually capable of murder and why.

Bell’s writing continues in this series with a conversational style that allowed me to immerse myself in the story completely. Bell is building a fantastic series. I can proudly say now that I have read this entire series.

This fourth book is a tamed meandering river ride story. If you love quick weekend reads that can take you away then add this book to your reading list, along with this entire series. Stories are meant to take us away from our own lives this story continued to take me away ever so briefly to new places, new things, and insightful looks into fantastic characters.

Who does not love that cover? It’s gorgeous.