Adelaide Fountaine, general manager of the Darkwater Inn, has just returned to New Orleans from a six-month sabbatical in Europe. She’s rested and ready to take on the inn’s busiest season: Mardi Gras. But Adelaide hardly has time to unpack before a jewel heist interrupts a visit from foreign royalty. A priceless tiara goes missing from the hotel’s safe, and three people are left dead.Detective … dead.
Detective Beau Savoie discovers the robbery was an inside job, making everybody at the Darkwater Inn a suspect–including Dimitri, the son of the inn’s owner and Beau’s competition for Adelaide’s heart.
Tensions are high, and the stakes get even higher when Adelaide is abducted. Can Dimitri and Beau put aside their distrust and work together to save her?
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‘You’d be amazed at what the right bit of motivation can do to move people to do things you’d never think they would.’
Robin Caroll outdoes her previous book in her Darkwater Inn series with this one. She is in top form here. Adelaide Fountaine, general manager of the Darkwater Inn, has just returned from a six month time away when she is informed that the security of the inn has been hacked, two murders have been committed and a priceless royal tiara has been stolen. What? The princess to whom the tiara belongs is staying at the inn to ride in a parade but how can she without this tiara? And how did all this happen, anyway? Was more stolen than the tiara and cash? As sometimes is the case, things are not exactly what they appear in the Darkwater Inn.
Detective Beau Savoie, who has long held a torch for Addy, is called in to investigate, and is having a hard time dealing with the fact that the owner’s son, Dimitri, who is a chef at the inn, also cares for Addy. But first, these murders, the hack and the heist must be solved.
Caroll ramps it up in this second book in the series, adding more layers every few chapters, till the reader is clueless. I had no idea the culprit. Then, there is more to solve when Addy is kidnapped! How does Caroll do it? How does she create such intense drama with such intrigue? I was all in from the very start and I can’t wait till the last book in the series. I think all Caroll’s readers want to know which man Addy will choose, too. I know I do! Team Beau all the way here! Bravo to Robin Caroll for a job well done. Highly recommended.
*My thanks to the author and publisher for a preview copy of this book. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Outstanding whodunit by Robin Caroll! Darkwater Lies is another well-written, edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting southern novel of suspense. It is another fine example of Caroll’s award winning storyteller skills.
It is Mardi Gras in New Orleans and things are hopping at the Darkwater Inn. Freshly returned from a trip to Europe, the well-rested general manager, Adelaide Fontaine, is ready to welcome guests to the Inn, including royalty.
When a priceless tiara goes missing and three people turn up dead, Detective Beau Savoie is assigned to the case. Detective Savoie soon determines that the robbery and murders are inside jobs, everyone is a suspect.
Everyone includes the son of the owner, Dimitri, Adelaide finds herself caught in between both men as each vies for her heart while attempting to find the real thief and murdered. Even Dimitri’s father becomes suspect!
As the sleuths become closer to finding the culprit, Adelaide is kidnapped. Detective Savoie and Dimitri now must work together to find Adelaide and the perpetrator of the crimes.
Fast-paced and well-written, the author’s growing up years in Louisiana lend a southern, New Orleans true feel to the novel. Coupled with rich descriptions of historical New Orleans and intriguing players, Darkwater Lies is one of Robin Caroll’s best yet.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via the publisher and am not required to write a positive review. All thoughts and opinions therein are solely my own.
Second in the Darkwater Inn series, this thrilling suspense novel is fabulous! It is fast-paced and intriguing, set during the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. We get to better know the characters we came to love – or not – in Darkwater Secrets with a plot that hits the ground running.
Addy is General Manager of Darkwater Inn, a luxury, historic hotel in the French Quarter. It is owned by Claude Pampalon, who groomed his son Dimitri to be the CEO, a position he doesn’t want. Instead, Dimitri is the chef at the Inn’s renowned restaurant. His half sister Lissette, daughter of a woman Claude had secretly seen, has been confirmed as Claude’s daughter. Dimitri helped Lissette get on board to learn to be CEO of the Inn and, due to the inheritance laws unique to their state, will share Claude’s estate with Dimitri they thought.
Approximately an hour after discovered, Addy learns of a hack into the computer systems. She hurries to see if the vault has been compromised when the security team is unable to get a response from the guard posted there. She and Dimitri find the vault open, and dead inside is one of the Inn’s guards and a guard of Liechtenstein’s Princess Katerina. The safe at the back of the vault has also been opened, and is now missing $50,000 cash, a black velvet tubular pouch Claude had secured there a couple days ago, and the jewel-encrusted tiara the Princess brought with her. Thus begins the investigation into a labyrinth of theft of incredibly valuable items, murders, and even more difficult for Dimitri and Beau, one of the detectives, Addy’s kidnapping. It is a tangled web of intrigue, in which one clue might lead to another crime, or an unexpected bad guy or gal.
I enjoyed getting to know Addy, Dimitri, and Beau better! I also appreciated “meeting” the princess and learning about her Liechtenstein home. Addy has an inner strength and an engaging manner of drawing people into conversations. She has been away from the Lord for a very long time, trying to overcome the anger and resentment that long had a grip on her. The potential romance she put on hold almost a year ago still awaits her attention. Beau, who she has known since childhood, has loved her for most of her life. Dimitri hasn’t known her as long, but he also is in love with her. They are each aware of the other’s feelings and awaiting her decision of who she will go out with. Since I like both, it is hard to guess which one she might choose! Addy had been in Europe for several months of special training, and had taken a long assessment of the direction she is going in. Dimitri is a man of faith, and he prays for all concerned with the circumstances. In that respect I think he would be a good choice.
There are exciting plot twists throughout that continually change the landscape of the story. It is a challenge to determine who was behind each – or all – of the crimes, and there were definite surprises. This is a highly-satisfying novel that reminds me all over again how much I love this author’s work. I highly recommend this to anyone who appreciates excellent Christian intrigue with the potential for romance in a fascinating, historical setting.
From a grateful heart: I received a complimentary copy of the e-Arc, and this is my honest review.
DARKWATER. LIES by Robin Caroll
Adelaide had taken a Sabbatical to Europe for six months. Now she is told they have a hacker in there system. It is Mardi Gras time, and it showing only half of the rooms occupied, instead of almost all. Hesitating to call the police, because of incident a year ago of a murdered body found here. When told the guest were locked out of there rooms. Then finding two bodies and the vault was open, she had no choice now. She had to look into the vault, before police came, the one priceless item was gone. The mystery, the intrigue, the history of the tiara, the characters we love all in this story. We try to figure out what happened, as well as the ltrue ove of Adelaide, readers will love the story…Given ARC for my voluntary review and my honest opinion.
I really enjoyed the second book in this series, but it reads perfectly fine as a standalone book. Every time I thought I knew what was coming next, I was wrong! That made it fun and intriguing to read, and I could hardly put it down! The characters were vivid, the mystery much more complex than I imagined, and the whole story flowed really well. My favorite part was that the main character, Addy, has TWO men interested in her. Typically books have one main male and one main female, and we know (yawn) that they will get together in the end, no matter what they go through in between. However, each of these two guys is wonderful in his own way, and I honestly have no idea which one she will pick (or even if she will pick one!). I certainly can’t decide between them. That’s another delightful twist in this series. I can’t wait for book three!
“She wasn’t quite sure how she was going to handle what was about to become an international incident, but Adelaide was certain of one thing: she was about to find out.”
Returning to the Darkwater Inn after a restorative sabbatical in England, Adelaide Fountaine’s role as general manager is once again interrupted by tragedy; a robbery gone wrong, with no survivors. Apparently, after hacking into the inn’s security system, someone had successfully pilfered a priceless tiara from the hotel safe. There are more questions than answers, and while the two men in Adelaide’s life are both determined to help her find them, her mixed feelings about how each of them can fit into her future is still as confusing as ever.
Dark intentions swirl through-out this intriguing second novel, in Robin Caroll’s must-read Darkwater Inn series.