Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Making a Murderer meets Scandal in this story of police corruption, family secrets, and illicit affairs from bestselling author K.A. Tucker, celebrated for her "propulsive plot twists and searing seduction" ( USA TODAY ).
Noah Marshall has known a privileged and comfortable life thanks to his mother, the highly decorated chief of the Austin Police Department. But all that changes the night she reveals a skeleton that's been rattling in her closet for years, and succumbs to the guilt of destroying an innocent family's life. Reeling with grief, Noah is forced to carry the burden of this shocking secret.
Gracie Richards wasn't born in a trailer park, but after fourteen years of learning how to survive in The Hollow, it's all she knows anymore. At least here people don't care that her dad was a corrupt Austin cop, murdered in a drug deal gone wrong. Here, she and her mother are just another family struggling to survive...until a man who clearly doesn't belong shows up on her doorstep.
Despite their differences, Noah and Gracie are searching for answers to the same questions, and together, they set out to uncover the truth about the Austin Police Department's dark and messy past. But the scandal that emerges is bigger than they bargained for, and goes far higher up than they ever imagined.
Complex, gritty, sexy, and thrilling, Keep Her Safe solidifies K.A. Tucker's reputation as one of today's most talented new voices in romantic suspense.
"Noah Marshall has had a privileged life thanks to his mother, the highly decorated chief of the Austin Police Department. But all that changes the night she reveals a skeleton that's been rattling in her closet for years: she doesn't deserve her commendations or her medals--in fact, she deserves to be locked behind bars. When she finally succumbs to the guilt of destroying an innocent family's life, she leaves Noah alone to carry the burden of this shocking secret. Gracie Richards wasn't born into trailer park life, but after fourteen years of learning how to survive in The Hollow, it's all she knows anymore. At least here people don't care that she has a white mother and a black father. And they certainly don't care that her dad was a corrupt Austin cop. Here, she and her mother are just another family struggling to survive, until a man who clearly doesn't belong shows up on her doorstep one night. Together, Noah and Gracie set out to uncover the truth about the Austin Police Department's dark and messy past--but the scandal they uncover is bigger than they bargained for, and goes far higher up than they ever imagined."-- Provided by publisher.
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Publishers Weekly Review
Tucker's heart-pounding standalone romantic thriller opens with a peculiar suicide. Austin police chief Jackie Marshall mutters rambling self-recriminations to her son Noah, makes him promise to keep them secret, and then shoots herself. Noah can't figure out whether she was trying to atone for her own misdeeds or those of her former partner, Abraham Wilkes, or to protect someone in the Austin PD. Then he receives a confidential envelope from his mother's lawyer, and the note leads him to a hidden compartment holding $98,000. Between that and an unexpected visit from a pair of FBI agents, Noah becomes determined to get to the bottom of the story behind his mother's confession and death. He goes in search of Gracie, Abraham's daughter, one of the few people who might have answers. Tucker (Until It Fades) crafts a shrewd mystery that never falls flat, even as the steady, subtle romantic relationship between Noah and Gracie heats up the page. Agent: Stacey Donaghy, Donaghy Literary. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Known for her romance fiction and romantic suspense, Tucker's latest is light on love and heavy on adventure. Noah Marshall shows up at a Tucson mobile-home park with $98,000 the week after his Austin police-chief mother kills herself. He's looking for Gracie Richards, the daughter of his mother's late partner. Abe was like a second father to Noah, and Noah's mother's garbled words the night she died were about Abe's innocence in the shooting death that got him labeled as a dirty cop. Noah and Gracie return to Austin to try to clear Abe's name and to pick up where he left off on his last case. (He was looking for Gracie's Aunt Betsy, a runaway who had been forced into underage prostitution.) From twentysomethings Noah and Gracie in the present day to sections focusing on their parents set in 2003, the chapters slowly overlap until they come together to reveal how all the players are interconnected. A satisfying change of pace for Tucker.--Keefe, Karen Copyright 2017 Booklist
Kirkus Book Review
When Noah Marshall hears a gun fired in his kitchen, he runs out of the shower to his mother's side, but he isn't fast enough to save her. Jackie Marshall, chief of police, shot herself in the headbut why?Twenty years earlier, Jackie had worked hard, alongside her partner and best friend, Abe Wilkes, to scour the streets of Austin, Texas, clean of dealers and addicts. The drugs and money left behind at each bust were tempting, but family kept them straight. In fact, Abe, his wife, Dina, and their daughter, Gracie, treated Jackie and Noah like family. By the time Gracie was 6, though, Abe had been killed in a drug bust, his reputation had been ruined, and his family had fled to Arizona, where Dina eventually turned to heroin herself. Meanwhile, Jackie had risen in the ranks to head the police department, and her brother, Silas,was well on his way to becoming the district attorney. Jackie's suicide leaves everyone bewildered, especially Noah, who begins finding clues that the story of Abe's death may not be so clear after all. Tucker (Until it Fades, 2017, etc.) masterfully sets the stage with the mysteries of Abe's and Jackie's deaths and then ratchets up the tension as Noah discovers a stash of money meant for Gracie and delivers it just in time to save Dina from a burning trailer. In short order, Noah and Gracie have ripped open the fabric of an investigation so dirty it threatens their own lives. Was Abe really corrupt? Did Jackie kill herself? And where did the money for Gracie come from? A master of steamy romance, Tucker skillfully threads Noah and Gracie's sexual tension throughout the investigation, which will please her fans.No one is above suspicion in this taut, sizzling romantic mystery. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.