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Detective Claire Morgan is back, and this time she faces off with a killer who steals smiles from his victims and leaves a bloody trail of torture in his wake.

Author Linda Ladd set a high bar for herself with last year’s Dark Places, an uber-creepy novel featuring serial killers who harnessed the power of brown recluse bits as an effective torture technique. With recent series flops dogging some of my favorite authors, I wondered if Ladd’s third book in the Claire Morgan series, Die Smiling, would hold up, or if it would disappoint.

I picked it up, excited and a little nervous, and started reading. And reading. And reading. I could not put this book down, and once I was finished, I craved more.

Die Smiling falls four months after Dark Places. Detective Claire Morgan and her partner, Bud, are a little bored, thanks to unexciting crimes at the Lake. That changes when a beauty pageant queen is found murdered in a swank cliff home owned by Claire’s hot boyfriend, Nick Black, her smile grotesquely altered.

The murder victim is the sister of Bud’s girlfriend, Brianna, who tells them that her sister had many enemies, including a stalker. But as the pair investigate, more sinister motives for the murder come to light, and Claire realizes they are dealing with a psychotic control freak who has set out to kill them all.

Edgy, suspenseful, Die Smiling elevates Ladd from up-and-comer to a master in the genre. The former romance author has a knack for creating compelling characters, unique twists on tired plots and intensely suspenseful reads that readers simply cannot put down. I think her background in writing romances – which are character-driven novels – gives her an edge over other authors in the mystery genre, who concentrate more on plot points rather than character development.

What adds creepy, psychological flavor to this series is how Ladd tells the stories. In each book, sections are devoted to the perspective of the killer(s). Readers have no idea who these people are, but Ladd drops clues throughout her stories that eventually tie together the killer(s) with the case. I was blown away with the twists in Die Smiling, some easily figured, others total shocks.

Claire Morgan, a battle-scarred detective at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, is one of my favorite protagonists in the detective mystery genre. Her character continues to evolve with each book, and readers can easily feel her pain as she works through personal demons and tries to figure out where her relationship with Nick is going. I was so frustrated with Claire when she could not commit to her hot, hot, HOT rich boyfriend. I’m itching to see what happens with Claire and Nick, and if Claire will develop a growing attraction to a psychic who made played a key role in Dark Places, but only showed up for a few paragraphs in Die Smiling. Claire and Nick rock as a couple. They are symbiotic, much like J.D. Robb’s Eve and Roark, and their relationship alone is enough to keep me coming back for more.

Die Smiling is the edgy thriller that is a must-have for suspense fans. You can read as a stand alone, but I strongly suggest you begin with Head to Head, then Dark Places, to get beneath the skin of Claire’s character, as well as pick up on details to her relationships in and out of the office that are key to this book.

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