Lily White in Detroit

Lily White is following a woman. She's not a stalker .. she's a PI and the woman's husband wants proof that his wife is having an affair. While Lily is filming the woman knocking on a man's door, she notices that there is a stalker and this stalker is armed with a gun. Her client's wife lies dead.

Only days later, her supposed boyfriend is also shot and killed.

Detroit Detective Derrick Paxton is investigating both murders. He knows Lily from a prior case. She was helpful then and she's helpful now. Lily suffers from PTSD from a traumatic event many years prior. Paxton knows her history and he thinks her judgment is impaired.

When Paxton goes after her client and tries to prove that he hired someone to murder his wife, Lily is adamant that he is innocent.

When Lily is kidnapped and held for 3 days, the cases of the murdered woman and man take a twisted turn. Working together, they're having to sift through a lot of lies and secrets to find the truth.

What they find leads them to each other, but do they have enough to bring the true criminals to justice?

Only 179 pages, this is a quick read, action-packed and entertaining. The author has painted Detroit as it is today with a look toward the future. I like the PI and the cop working together to solve cases ... usually they are very protective of their own territory. There are a few twists and turns, and the suspense is low key, but very present.

The characters are solid. Paxton is the son of the police chief. Lily is the daughter of the man who murdered her mother. There is an immediate attraction, but they are both a little wary. He's been married before and she just doesn't do well with relationships. It's fun to see how they interact with each other.

Many thanks to the author / The Wild Rose Press / Netgalley for the advanced digital copy of this crime suspense. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I love reading about my hometown and Ms. White does a great job of giving you different aspects of the city. While you know the interracial is there, she doesn't harp on the topic which is nice. I do hope we see more of these characters in future books. Lily is a great character with attitude, spunk, compassion and more.

On one hand this novel was interesting but on the other wasn’t very tight or clear in its purpose. The love story seems like a last minute add

In the mood for something a little lighter, Lily White in Detroit hit the mark for me, being a contemporary romantic suspense novel. Lily is a videographer-come-private investigator in recovery from PTSD thanks to some seriously bad events in her past. After witnessing her client’s wife being stalked, then murdered, she teams up with another virtual loner, police detective Paxton. They soon launch into a tentative relationship while chasing down murderers, hackers and other villains, and when the case turns personal and the stakes escalate, in turn their budding romance escalates. Detroit, a racially divided city, and the tensions that setting adds to the situation between the black cop and white PI, are a good bonus to the story. Recommended if you’re in the mood for a light romantic suspense read.

Things are not what they seem. Not always anyway.

Lily White lives in Detroit. That’s not her real name. But she has her reasons. She is a PI working a case which seems pretty straightforward at first, follow the client’s wife, find out whether she is cheating on him. But than she is killed right in front of her. Some time later her alleged lover is killed too also in front of her. The cops are sure the husband is to blame but Lily thinks differently so she investigates on her own.
Detective Derrick Paxton is working the case, he knows Lily from another investigation and he knows she has PTSD. He thinks her jugdement is impaired but despite that he still wants to help Lily.
As the investigation goes on they start to have feelings for each other and that also complicates things.

It’s always refreshing to read about characters who have problems on their own other than alcoholism. Lily has PTSD because of something in her past (you have to read the book to find out what happened to her). She is struggling with symptoms while trying to find the real killer. I really liked her complexity, her honesty and that she plays fair.
Derrick Paxton is what I think of as the typical good guy. He is a cop through and through but he is also human, he has compassion. I so loved them together.

Thank you to NetGalley, The Wild Rose Press and Cynthia Harrison for my copy.