Fatal Affair by Marie Force
Publication Date: June 26, 2016 (April 28, 2015)
Publisher: Carina Press
Fatal Affair opens with the bloody murder scene of a US Senator and maintains the tension throughout in this romantic suspense by Marie Force, the first novel in the Fatal series.
Nick Cappuano is the chief-of-staff for US Senator John O’Connor. It’s not unusual for him to have to retrieve the senator from his Watergate apartment but this morning he certainly wasn’t expecting to find his long-time friend murdered in bed.
Sergeant Sam Holland of the MPD has come under scrutiny lately because of a judgement call that resulted in the death of a little boy. When she walks into the high profile crime scene, she knows that she needs to crack this case swiftly to regain her credibility, especially since the media has raked her over the coals. The last thing she expects is to find Nick, a man she had passionate night with six years earlier, and to realize that the passion they experienced is still very much alive. It’s the last thing she expects and the last thing she wants, because reigniting their passion would damage her credibility with her superiors as he’s the lead witness to the senator’s murder.
Fatal Affair is an excellent mystery that keeps you guessing all the way to the end, which is a major accomplishment, as we folks who read mysteries usually spend as much time following the clues and trying to guess who did it as we do reading the actual words. Force writes with style and attention to detail.
The romance between Nick and Sam sizzles and I enjoyed the Felix-Oscar-type exchange with Nick being the anal retentive and Sam the slob. While I liked that they were reconnecting, having been kept apart initially by Peter, Sam’s then roommate who was intent on taking their relationship to the next level, I wasn’t altogether convinced of “love” but rather “lust.”
Many characters were introduced, but, except for some of the detectives, who I couldn’t always keep straight, they served the purpose of widening the field of possible suspects.
All in all a good read and I look forward to reading the other books in the series.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Carina Press in exchange for an honest review.
rating: 
(4 butterflies and a ladybug out of 5)