Vulnerable (Morgans of Nashville #4) by Mary Burton

Vulnerable (Morgans of Nashville #4).  Mary Burton. Kensington. March 2016. 384 pp. ISBN#: 9780786039418.

The opening scene is downright creepy.  A pervert manages to awaken the sexy side of young Elisa, a stranger who had shared a few cups of coffee.  The scene that started as hot and sexy becomes cruel, then scary, and finally fatal.  The stranger thinks to himself there are many Elisa’s.  That is just the start of this horrific tale!

The story in some ways is familiar.  Young girls getting attention from a charm who sprays them with compliments.  The warnings from others are ignored with the usual comment, “I know what I’m doing.”  Warnings that morph into realistic out-of-control attack and then death!

Georgia Morgan is a forensic technician working with the Nashville Police Department.  She’s known as superb at her work and never gets rattled when testifying at trials. She’s also a sexy singer on the side. Now Amber, the only girl to survive the disappearance of three young girls in the woods near Nashville, appears and wants to find the girls who were never recovered.  Georgia wonders why Amber, who had a very bad concussion from the event, would return to get involved in what she can’t remember.  

Amber was suspected of knowing more than she was saying, so much so that she went out of town and got a college degree. But now that she’s returned, how can she possibly help?  She gets mugged on her first night home. But the tale is really only just beginning for Amber knows so much more than she is letting on and bad liars leave traces of their activities. The reader, however, will be unable to figure out Amber’s role in the kidnapping and murders as well as her motives and those of a guilty male.

It’s a great story but it’s definitely not a romance!  It has just enough spins and twists to keep the reader guessing.  Very fine, realistic murder mystery!