Review: Trace of Doubt

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Fifteen years ago, Shelby Pearce confessed to murdering her brother-in-law and was sent to prison. Now she’s out on parole and looking for a fresh start in the small town of Valleysburg, Texas. But starting over won’t be easy for an ex-con.

FBI Special Agent Denton McClure was a rookie fresh out of Quantico when he was first assigned the Pearce case. He’s always believed Shelby embezzled five hundred thousand dollars from her brother-in-law’s account. So he’s going undercover to befriend Shelby, track down the missing money, and finally crack this case.

But as Denton gets closer to Shelby, he begins to have a trace of doubt about her guilt. Someone has Shelby in their crosshairs. It’s up to Denton to stop them before they silence Shelby—and the truth—forever.

Genre: romantic suspense

Publication date: September 2021

Mature content: no

Review: Although I think the plot had potential, Trace of Doubt did not work for me. The first part is not all that bad - the only thing that didn't really make sense was to have an FBI agent working supposedly undercover but using his own name and living close to the very person he's supposed to be watching, knowing she could easily identify him. 

But the second part? I found it, unfortunately very unconvincing - that Shelby's sister could have set up such a large scale criminal organization without anyone from her family noticing is totally far fetched. By that point, the plot complicates so much it's even hard to keep track. 

I have to agree all the puzzle pieces were cleverly crafted to match in the end, but the point is that there are just too many puzzle pieces for the story to be minimally believable. 

Happy readings!

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