Don’t you love it when you find a book that you definitely can’t put down? Edna Buchanan’s “Love Kills” is one of those mysteries. I sat up until the wee hours of the morning to finish reading it. I had to do it! I had to find out what happened in the end.

Buchanan has two series: the Britt Montero series and the new Cold Case Squad series. In “Love Kills”, she reunites the two in alternating chapters. Britt is the unifying catalyst. In the opening pages of the book, a bulldozer in the Everglades unearths the skull of an infamous kidnapper. Britt was one of the last people to see him alive, so the Cold Case Squad wants to talk to her, but she’s not there.

Britt disappeared about three books ago when her lover, Kendall McDonald, was murdered. It turns out that she was hiding out on a tropical island while she was trying to come to terms with losing her. Her friend, newspaper photographer Lottie Dane, comes to visit and takes her back to Miami. On the last day before going home, the two find a camera on the beach with photos from their honeymoon. They are determined to track down the happy couple in order to return the photos. Tragically, the pair are missing at sea and are feared dead. When her husband turns up, alive and distraught, Britt’s nose for her news prompts her to interview him for a story. The connection between the reporter and her new widower amazes her and Ella Britt is even more shocked when she discovers the truth. Ultimately, her search for her boyfriend’s secrets and the Cold Case Squad’s search for the kidnapper’s killer collide.

There are two big twists in “Love Kills” and I didn’t see them coming. With the second one, near the end of the book, I literally had to stop reading, I was so shocked. Buchanan puts his protagonist, Britt Montero, in danger, and just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do, over and over until the final climax. There’s also a scene in the Cold Case section that was so funny it made me laugh out loud.

Buchanan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, has written 16 books. I’ve read them all, and they’re all good. She worked as a police reporter for the Miami Herald before retiring to write full time. Her books are sharp, fast paced and a lot of fun to read. She brings authenticity to her writing because of her journalistic experience working with the police in Miami. Buchanan’s non-fiction book, “The Corpse had a Familiar Face” is fabulous.

If you are looking for a new author to read, I urge you to give Edna Buchanan a try. I don’t think you will be disappointed.