Lone Rider

By: B. J. Daniels

Narrated by: Graham Winton

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

A cowgirl at heart, Bo Hamilton does her best thinking in wide-open spaces. So when money goes missing from the family foundation she runs - meaning one of her trusted, ragtag employees is a thief - Bo rides into the Crazy Mountains to figure things out. But a killer hiding among the sawtooth ridges takes her captive and isn't planning on ever letting her go.

Bo's disappearance gets folks thinking she's the guilty one run off with the money, but Jace Calder would bet his ranch that she's innocent. Not that he has any reason to trust the beautiful, spoiled senator's daughter. But she also gave his troubled sister a job when no one else would. For his sibling's sake, Jace is going after Bo and bringing her home to face the truth. But up in the mountains, he finds Bo at the mercy of a suspected murderer. As her only hope, Jace is about to find out what they're both made of.

©2015 Barbara Heinlein (P)2015 Recorded Books

Suspense and Mystery

This book delivers more twists and turns in the first chapter than most books have in the whole story. The characters are so real that you either love them or hate them. Once you read one of BJ Daniels books you will want to read everything the writes. She is an expert story teller and keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way to the last page.

Strong entry in ongoing series

Bo Hamilton, daughter of the wealthy Buckmaster Hamilton who is currently the front-runner for President, is running the non-profit named for her missing mother, Sara Hamilton. When she discovers that someone has taken money from the non-profit, she calls in an auditor and rides into the nearby mountain range known as The Crazies to prepare herself mentally to deal with the problem. When she hasn’t returned two days later, a Monday, one of her employees begs her brother, local rancher Jace Calder, to go into the mountains to bring her home.

Jace, who has twice dated and broken up with Bo, thinks she may have been escaping from the consequences of the theft from her non-profit – may have actually taken the money herself. What he doesn’t know is that Bo has been kidnapped by an escaped killer who has decided she would make a good wife, if he properly subdues her. Through the danger-fraught chase and rescue, he rediscovers his love and trust for her, and she accepts that he was always the one she wanted.

This book, the second in the Montana Hamiltons series, is an engrossing tale that neatly weaves in the story of the main characters, Bo and Jace, with the over-arching storyline of the series as a whole. It’s tough to make a series novel hold together as a cohesive, stand-alone entity as well, but Daniels does an excellent job. In the larger picture, Bo’s mother, Sara, has reappeared after 22 years. She had been presumed dead, a victim of suicide, although her body had not been found. Now she is back, amnesiac with flashes of uncomfortable memories. Buck Hamilton struggles with his competing feelings for his first wife and the woman he married seven years after he thought Sara was dead. He is also pulled by the competing demands of finding his daughter and keeping volatile secrets from the media as his campaign progresses.

After finishing the book, I found myself simultaneously satisfied with the main story of the novel and eager for the next installment to learn how the other storylines progress.

The Right People Survived

They realized love had not died but lay formant until the time was right. A girl with a past found love with a decent young man.

Lone Rider: Montana Hamiltons Series #2

The narrator did a wonderful job.

I found that too much of this story was filled with the kidnapper and his hateful thoughts. I really disliked that,

I did enjoy the continuing saga of Sheriff Frank Curry. He was my favorite character in the Beartooth, Montana series so I am pleased he is in this series as well.

So much left unfinished

I know it's part of a series but more was left unfinished than was resolved.