This book was a great read and had just the right amount of romance mixed with suspense. From the very beginning of the book, the story was intriguing, and it just kept going from there. The setting is a Mexican boat marina, where a San Diego cop finds a dead body in the water and the investigation focuses on a number of people. When Katy runs into Gabe, a long ago ex husband, and meets Raul, a new man in her life, things get competitive and steamy as she gets torn between the two before finally falling in love with Raul. When the investigation points to a rich man that is docked at the marina that Katy has her boat in, people start turning up dead. ( )

After being put on a forced leave while Internal Affairs investigates her shooting of her sister's stalker, San Francisco PD Detective Katrina Hunter has taken her sailboat on a solo cruise to Mexico in order to find peace and solitude - if only she had not come upon the floating body at the mouth of the Ensenada port. Now she has discovered that an old boyfriend who she helped jumped bail years ago is a suspect in this murder and Chief Inspector Raul Vignaroli is using this information to compel her to help in the investigation by being an undercover interrogator among the American suspects in an exclusive harbor. However, can she trust the mutual attraction she is feeling with Raul as the case turns dangerous when a local cartel connection comes up. Beyond the setup, the main mystery is intricately plotted with a nice set of suspects, each hiding his or her own secrets, leading up to a suspenseful thriller ending that should please most mystery fans. ( )

Katrina's life goes from perfect to bad in a blink of an eye. She's a San Francisco cop with a powerful fiancé that instantly turns into being suspended off the force, and dumped by her fiancé so he can save his own career. She was suspended from the force because she shot her sisters stalker. So to deal with her life as it has become, she sails to Mexico on her personal boat, the Pilgrim. As if life couldn't get any more screwed up for Katrina, the plot thickens into murder and darkness.

While sailing out to her vacation, she finds a dead girl that she mistakenly reports to the Mexican officials, landing her in Mexican jail. Could they possibly believe that she is some how connected to this young girl's death?

The author does a great job at expressing the agitation and struggle Katrina goes through. I could definitely feel her angst and confusion as her life seems to fall apart suddenly. This is a great murder mystery that will have you clenching your book in anticipation on what is to come. I would rate this PG so it's not too much for those out there that do not enjoy the mushy romance that sometimes comes with the murder mystery's.

I found some of the writing to be a bit confusing, especially when the author changes up points of view, and quick scene changes. At times, the book seemed to be written in a different tense. I found myself backtracking through the book to keep up with the plot. The characters did not match their personalities or descriptions. For example, it seemed that Raul, the Mexican Police Chief should have had more of a bad-ass personality to back up his dialogue. In my opinion, he sounded very weak and could have been developed a bit more for being a pretty big character throughout the book.

Overall I found this to be a typical murder mystery book with many dramatic turns that destroyed the main character's life. Isn't that how most of them go? I would rate this book a 3/5. It was good, but could have been better. ( )

A Dangerous Harbor – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat and Think With Your Taste Buds – Desserts


‘Katy leaned over and deftly nudged the weedy raft around so that its reluctant passenger was facing her, and then ever so gently, pushed back the wet strands of black hair. Dark wings of brow stood out in stark relief on pale olive skin. It was a girl, maybe all of sixteen, she guessed. “Where’d you come from?” She wondered to no one in particular. As if to answer at least part of her question, the ocean swelled, lifting up the maiden’s bier until Kate was looking into slightly open eyes. There were no petechiae, the telltale red dots freckling the cornea and typical of strangulation. “Not strangled, but still…” A frothy red bubble clinging to the nostril and a few more at her mouth said drowned, but not in the water very long as the limbs were still pliant and the skin wasn’t bloated or damaged by fish or sea birds.’


Detective Katrina Taylor Hunter, of the San Francisco Police Department, was forced to take a sabbatical after shooting her sister’s stalker. While the investigation was going on, she decided to take sail down to Ensenada, Mexico to clear her head and hopefully return to her position on the force. After discovering a floater Katy has doubts about the head clearing part of her trip. Her doubts are confirmed when after spending hours at the Ensenada Police Station she bumps into Gabriel Alexander, a former ‘love of her life’ who is being investigated as a possible connection to the dead girl found by Katy. And to make matters worse, she meets Chief Inspector Raul Vignaroli. Her reaction to him is immediate attraction. One problem…he wears a wedding ring and Katy has no desire to become involved with a married man. So will she be able to handle being around him after he cons her into helping with the investigation? Also, how will she handle her feelings for Gabe, the man she loved so deeply in her younger days?


Following Katy as she uncovers what appears to be a sex slave market being run by not only one of the boat captains but also the drug cartel, will keep you on your sitting on the edge of your seat, biting your nails and guessing. I had several ideas for who the killer(s) would turn out to be but found myself wrong most of the time. I have to say that the real killer, whom is not exposed until the end, surprised me. A Dangerous Harbor has turned out to be just as good as the Lalla Bains books A Dead Red Cadillac and A Dead Red Heart, both written by RP Dahlke. All three will keep you on the edge.


Review Stir, Laugh, Repeat at Amazon.com Stir, Laugh, Repeat ( )