Buried Too Deep (A New Orleans Novel Book 3)

I’m looking forward to several more New Orleans suspense mystery books! This is such a wonderful cast of characters and they are all so good at what they do! I always want to start the next book when I finish one. Cora Jane is a wonderful addition. Can’t wait to see her added to the white board gathering. Finding Scarlet, Stone and Delores in this book was a real treat!

Life was complicated enough suffering from PTSD, but getting pinned by the police for a break-in sets a man on a path of investigation straight into the dark shadows of an even older crime. Karen Rose’s New Orlean’s series has been captivating from the beginning and I love the focus around the Broussard Investigations and security firm. The series only seems to get stronger as I go.

Buried Too Deep is the third of the New Orleans sub-series and thirtieth in the Romantic Suspense series overall. While one could get away with reading it out of order, I did enjoy having the background and world of Broussard’s people and the overall situation with New Orlean’s backdrop from the previous books.

Phin Bishop is struggling, but he’s working through his PTSD and the Broussard Security family is behind him a hundred percent. When there is a break in and he gets tagged for it by the NOPD, they support him and he is determined to clear his name. His investigation leads him to Cora, a librarian.

Cora’s dad disappeared twenty years before, but bones being identified as him has just turned up. One might think this is a good thing and would bring closure, but no… cue the creepy music. See, Cora’s been getting an annual letter from her dad even while those bones definitively ID’d as him have been moldering in the ground. So, whose been sending her the letters? And, why is she suddenly in danger after the bones are found? Cora wants answers and with Phin on her bodyguard team with his new K-9 companion, Soda Pop (love the name)- they will dive in and discovered a dark cover up.

I was very taken with Phin’s character and his connection to his work friends, his companion dog, and his growing romance with Cora. As usual, Karen Rose did her research and portrayed PTSD as an ongoing, realistic struggle. I loved Cora and Phin together and how much she was all in and supportive. They were both smart about their investigating and I appreciated the balance of their building relationship and the tension of the suspense side of the plot.

The story had Phin and Cora both getting large swaths of the narration, but also the villain’s perspective which doesn’t give away as much as you’d think.

All in all, an abso-fab entry in a fantastic series. Romantic suspense and thriller romance fans who like good police procedural and some grit with a good balance of the romance and action should definitely give these a go.

The New Orleans series is heating up in Buried Too Deep. The action is exciting and the villains are supernaturally diabolical. The suspense is gripping and the mysteries are mind-blowing!

Cora and Phin meet under unusual circumstances and have a shared interest in discovering who’s responsible for the attack on the PI office. Is it related to Cora’s father’s death? And who’s sending her letters if her dad was dead the whole time? Each mystery reveals more questions than answers. It’ll take Phin and the rest of Burke Broussard’s PI gang to help Cora detangle this web of intrigue, duplicity, and betrayal.

Cora is a spitfire who’s also patient, kind, and so strong. She won’t let anything get in her way of discovering the truth. Phin is a pillar of strength for Cora. He desperately wants to prove to Cora–and to Burke–that he can do his job, protecting Cora, despite his PTSD. Cora and Phin have an understated chemistry that’s both tender and endearing. I think they make a great couple and pair beautifully together, Phin with his quiet intensity and Cora with her fierce protectiveness.

I really appreciate the way Ms. Rose approached Phin’s PTSD struggles. We first hear of Phin and his illness in Alone in the Dark, Book 2 of Ms. Rose’s Cincinnati series. Thankfully, Phin had some wonderful friends to help him along the way, and a wonderful support dog in SodaPop. The author handled the subject of PTSD beautifully and respectfully by normalizing this very real and very relevant illness.

Buried Too Deep is full of brow-raising, puzzle-piecing, unpredictability that’ll have readers thirsty for more.

I absolutely LOVE the story and the characters and I can’t wait for the next book! Karen Rose is a staple in the romantic suspense genre. I highly recommend all her books.

I read a NetGalley ARC, this is my honest review.

Buried Too Deep was an addicting story. I felt pulled in right from the start and couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. I loved how the romance and mystery were intertwined, I loved the characters, the found family, the drama, and watching the bad guys spiral. It was an exciting read and I was captivated!

I loved Phin and really getting to know him. He had such a big, caring heart. I felt for him about his past and loved his growth throughout the story. I adored Cora. She was a force of nature and I loved how she searched for the truth and wouldn’t let anyone push her around. Together they were so sweet and I loved their slow-burn romance developing in the middle of this intense situation. It was an easy romance with a touch of heat, but it was heartfelt and I couldn't help but root for them.

A lot was happening with the mystery and the build was incredible. I loved learning about what was going on in the present day and the details about the past and was anxious for all those dots to connect. There were bad guys in play and I loved getting all the different POVs. I always love how they try to make everything seem logical but then it all falls apart and they devolve. This wasn't a gritty suspense story but there were long-buried secrets being revealed and twists along the way that had me totally hooked. I had my guesses and the development of getting to those answers was phenomenal.

I felt invested in all the characters. I loved the found family with Broussard Investigations and how accepting they've always been of Phin and how they brought Cora into the fold. This is the third book in the New Orleans trilogy so people from the first two books are mentioned but not in a way that anything would be confusing.

Bottom line, this was an awesome read! I loved watching Phin and Cora come together. I loved how everyone rallied around them and were there for one another. Plus, there was an exceptional mystery and I couldn’t get enough. Loved this one!

Complimentary copy received from Berkley Romance.

Books set in New Orleans are personal favorites of mine. The mystic of the city seems to lend itself to a good story and this was a good story. Friends from previous books in the series popped back in to help just when one of their own truly needed them. Phin was a superb male lead in part because he was flawed and in that flaw he was real. The author did a nice job of handling Phin's PTSD. It wasn't merely a plot device mentioned and ignored. Phin struggled and the readers felt that struggle right along with him. Whether it was finding a friend covered in blood or dealing with accusations in the eyes of others, he struggled but at his heart he was a good man. And a good man need a good woman which we go in Cora. She brought the mystery as her live was thrown into disarray by a mystery stretching into the past and haunting those involved. Something about that felt very New Orleans to me. With action kicking off in this book and kicking off in both past and present, readers were left with no choice but to turn the page to see the tie in between past and present. Before I move on to what I didn't like, I would be remiss not mentioning SodaPop and her enormous contributions. She do and her role very real to anyone who has every cuddled their dog for comfort. One last should out to Dolores. She was a dynamo wrapped in a small package. My biggest complaint is the length of the book. I think there is a sweet spot for romantic suspense of between 300 and 400 pages and this was more. Some readers said that they length was not a deterrent but for me it was. It took away from the flow a bit because at times it felt a little bogged down and it just wasn't as sharp as the early chapters when all the drama kicked off. Overall, I enjoyed the book but just don't plan on this being a book you can finish in a single sitting. I have a feeling these characters will be back with the best friend starring in her own book. It felt like there was more story to tell for Tandy.. Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I have read all of this author’s books. She writes very well. This one was easier for me to read because it was less dark than some of her other books. The plot was still very complicated and had many suspects. The idea that such complex characters, stories, and relationships could develop and be resolved in such a short time frame is very unlikely. But her strength lies in her ability to write about damaged characters who form chosen families. And likable people are what appeal to me most in a good story.

"Buried Too Deep" is a romantic suspense. Though a part of a series, it works as a stand alone. Phin feels like a failure because of his PTSD and how he runs away from his friends (and family) every time it gets bad. He now has a support dog who helps him a lot, but he's embarrassed to need a dog's help. After the initial confusion of the crime scene, no one really suspects him of shooting someone at Broussard Private Investigations. However, he saw a potential witness flee the scene, so he helps track her down to question her. Cora wanted help investigating who killed her father, why, and why someone tried so hard to make her think that her father was still alive but abandoned her and her mother. The PIs (including Phin) and Cora work together to figure it out.

Since we get the viewpoint of the bad guys, we know that a television evangelist had something to hide all those years ago. He uses his nephew now to help him keep that crime covered up. The nephew has helped his uncle in the past by digging up dirt on those who threaten his uncle's reputation. He decides to find out why his uncle's running scared now. In the process, more people are killed to hide past secrets.

The suspense was created by the known threat to Cora (and others). The main characters were likable and reacted realistically to events. Phin and Cora worked together well, and Cora encouraged and built Phin up. I grant that the TV evangelist wasn't really a Christian and he certainly had a bad situation that he wanted to hide. But when we finally found out the secret motivating so much killing, I had a hard time believing that Cora's father (a proven secret keeper) was killed to hide a part of it while others were left alive.

There was a fair amount of bad language. There was a detailed sex scene.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.