Claire’s husband Spence has still not recovered from a robbery in progress that took the life of his partner and best friend. Spence had been forced to kill a young teenager all over a $49 video. The memory of both still haunt him, and unable to recover emotionally he has started gambling, a fact unknown to Claire.

The novel opens as Claire receives the dreaded knock on her door while her husband is at work. Quickly she is told that her husband is not only a suspect in the killing of a man, but is also being held on a conspiracy to murder charge and the intended victim of the conspiracy was to be Claire herself. The police have emails and tapes to support their position.

Devastated, Claire moves back to be close to her father, taking the opportunity to convert the property she and Spence had purchased to a horse ranch to be used for rehabilitation in her work with children.

Suddenly acts of vandalism start occurring at the ranch, and Claire is trying to cope with these as well as the knowledge that she is pregnant from the last night she and Spence had been together.

Although Claire’s faith in Spence has been badly shaken, she is resolute in her belief in him. This emotional turmoil is one focus of many in the book. Balancing this with her father’s clear and deep-seated hatred of Spence has her walking a tight line. Finally bail is reduced sufficiently for Spence to get out of jail. He is determined to see Claire one last time, and then disappear from her life. Since one of the conditions of his bail is that he not see or get in contact with Claire, it becomes a tricky challenge for him.

Claire is unwilling to abandon Spence totally and in spite of many doubts is determined to help him. The large gambling debt he has incurred is certainly a place to start while trying to find out why Spence had been set up and who had set him up. This commitment to discover the truth leads the two on a very twisted path with long hidden and bizarre revelations that keep the reader guessing throughout most of the story. The use or understanding of coincidences is a tool very effectively used in their pursuit.

The Deadliest Denial is a well-constructed action thriller that has the advantage of characters a reader can care about woven into an original albeit intricate plot line. A good summer read!

--Thea Davis