Usually the woods near her apartment are friendly. But when Christa Heckertt is trapped in a deserted cellar there with a broken arm, the place is decidedly hostile. Christa landed there not long after interrupting an intruder who tried to steal parts from the computers her Iowa City fourth-grade class won in the mayor’s competition.

But who chased her into the dank cellar?

Officer Kirk Reynolds was called from a drug surveillance to investigate the attempted burglary at Buckingham Elementary School. That throws Christa and Kirk together.

Reynolds wants enough evidence to convict a drug dealer who sells to kids and Christa wants to keep her students safe and get control of her life again.

The thieves who want the newly won computers will stop at nothing. They’ll kidnap Kirk’s niece, run cars off the road, steal, and threaten worse.

Christa and Kirk’s attraction to each other is growing, but they are too stubborn to admit it. Will it get in the way as they try to decipher an encoded file and learn what the kidnappers want and why it’s worth killing to get it?

On Halloween eve, the drug dealer Christa and Kirk suspect is behind it all kidnaps Christa to use her as leverage while he plans his biggest score. Will she escape in time to work with Kirk to keep the dealer from making that delivery, and find out who the dealer’s partners are? Can Christa and Kirk learn to trust the right people–and each other–in time?

Review: A fun little romantic mystery. At times both main characters seem a little fickle but probably because I’m old. Quite a complicated plot.