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One of the best things to happen to thriller readers in the last three years is author Linda Ladd’s departure from romance to this suspenseful genre.

Ladd’s recurring protagonist, Claire Morgan, is a tough chick who has suffered severe tragedies all of her life - including the death of her small son, Zach.  Danger follows her and very nearly kills her during her cases at the Canton County Sheriff’s Department at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.

Her sexy lover, Nicolas Black, a famous psychologist to the stars, plays prominently in her cases. His insight into the criminal mind, his devotion to Claire and his extreme wealth always add a little more flair to the Claire Morgan novels. The fact that they are perfectly suited as a couple spurs the romantic in me on.

With Enter Evil, the fourth installment in the Claire Morgan series, Ladd’s protagonist faces a truly evil therapist who is determined to kill people in creative, suicidal ways. 

The body of a young man is found hanging from the Lake of the Ozarks dam. At his restaurant, Claire and her partner, Bud, discover the body on a young woman - in the oven.

Claire’s instincts are screaming that this isn’t a murder suicide, and the more information she discovers, the more she believes something is amiss. Nick believes hypnosis could be involved. The only real clues are some beaded “evil eye” bracelets the victim wore on his wrists.

The dead guy - son to a prominent Missouri political family - was a patient at an exclusive facility in Jefferson City. He was referred there by none other than Nick Black, super-connected business man. The more Claire digs into the clinic, the more she believes someone incredibly evil is picking off people in his own sadistic game of manipulation and murder.

Claire soon finds herself in the killer’s sights and her inability to see the danger could make this even deadlier than her previous cases.

Enter Evil is edgy, mysterious, creepy and will leave fans wondering what will happen next to the Missouri detective. Enter Evil is thick with psychological suspense and razor-sharp intensity that will leave you with chills for days afterward.

A noted romance author, Ladd has truly found her element in detective mysteries. The entire time I read Enter Evil, I could feel the symbiosis between the author and her protagonist. Claire had a distinctive voice, smoky, with a touch of dry wit and sarcasm, that continued to run through my head well after I’d finished the book.

Ladd gives some amazing setting details throughout. As a long-time Missouri resident, I could easily visualize each scene. The accurate details added an extra layer to the book for me.

In this book, Claire deals with some serious memories about her dead son, Zach, murdered, as I recall, when her husband went ballistic and shot her former LAPD partner, Harve because he thought they were having an affair.

It was interesting that the psychotic sociopath used these memories to terrorize her, and yet they could very well have saved her life. Black has been trying to get Claire to deal with her memories of Zach for ages, and she begins to do so. When she is injured at the end of the book, a vision of Zach is what finally pushes her to wake up.

As a fan, I keep wondering just how much more Claire Morgan can take. She has been seriously injured in every one of the books. Danger and death are her constant shadows. Will it ever let up?

Ladd’s characters joke a little about Claire’s penchant for finding danger - and vice versa - in Enter Evil. It helps with the believability factor, but I would like to see Claire get through one case without getting critically injured.

As a romance fan, I love to see that Claire and hottie psychiatrist to the stars Nicolas Black are still together. They remind me of a modern day Eve and Roark from the In Death series. Psychic Joe McKay keeps showing up, professing his love for Claire. Not sure what I think about him. He seems OK, and his kid is a doll, but I’m not sure I could handle McKay and Claire together. She has a strong history with Nick Black.

I mention this because there were a few statements in the book that could be taken as foreshadowing for a change in Claire and Nick’s relationship - one that tears them apart. I could be reading way more into it than is there, but those statements, combined with a few well-placed comments from Claire’s few friends about her relationship with the sexy rich boy definitely gave me pause.

At the end of Enter Evil, Claire is critically injured and goes into a coma. She doesn’t really know who she is or any of the voices talking to her, though a few sound familiar (i.e. Black). Ladd could use this to completely shake up the series in the next book. It would be interesting, but the romantic schmuck in me says Black is The One and likely won’t be satisfied if he exits stage left.

If you haven’t checked out Linda Ladd’s series, you can easily start with Enter Evil, though I will tell you as a fan that you should start with the first, Head to Head, to get some serious background on the characters. Reading the novels in order will give you a better perspective of where Claire is coming from and what could happen on the road ahead.

Read my reviews of other books in the series:

Dark Places

Die Smiling

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