Nightshade, by Nora Roberts

I started reading Nora Roberts's Night Tales series about a year ago, but for some reason, I read only the first 2. This week I finally got to the third one, Nightshade.

TROUBLE IS HIS BUSINESS

Colt Nightshade: Professional troubleshooter. A damn good man to know—if he's on your side…

Althea Grayson: That's Lieutenant Althea Grayson—a hell of a cop, and heaven in his arms.

Colt Nightshade made his living facing danger—alone. But his search for a runaway girl through the steamy side of the city was one time he had to have help—whether he liked it or not. And if a man had to have a partner, he could do a whole lot worse than Althea Grayson. She was all business…and embodied his every pleasure. Soon, trouble became a four-letter word called love!

A good entry in the series, really good. A B.

I guess I've been in the mood for dark this week. First Darkness Calls and then this. The main difference was that, in Nightshade, the romance provided quite a bit of respite from the horror of the suspense subplot, while in DC, it continued the exploration of the darker side of the characters. I liked both approaches :-)

For such a short book, both Althea and Colt were well-drawn characters, Althea maybe a bit more than Colt. Their relationship developed in a believable way, and I liked the way Colt did his pursuing, having accepted his feelings long before Thea.

The suspense subplot was actually very interesting, if horrific. Nora pulled no punches here. There was no miraculous rescue at the nick of time, and real consequences for the victim, but all the same, the ending was optimistic.

I'm very much looking forward to reading the last 2 books of the series.