Sophia Rose Reviews - The One Who Walked Away by Karen Rose

 

The One Who Walked Away by Karen Rose

#34 Romantic Suspense

Publisher:  Berkley

Published:  8.11.26

Pages:  528

Rating: 4.5 stars

Format: Hardback

Source:  Berkley

Sellers:  Amazon

A bounty hunter must outrun her past before it catches up to her in this pulse-pounding new standalone thriller

Bounty hunter Elle Randolph takes on every case she can, in an effort to outrun herself. Three years ago, she was the only one who walked away from a car crash that killed her husband and two others. Although she was cleared of any wrongdoing, she is fueled by guilt and dedicated to solving other people’s problems. But her running is over when she’s identified as a person of interest in a murder investigation.

Detective Ronan Clarke, a single dad for fifteen years, has been laser-focused on raising his daughter and serving the people of Mendocino County, California. He’s got everything under control—until a bounty hunter enters his jurisdiction, keeping secrets and bringing murder to his quiet town. The hunter is definitely involved in his current case, but exactly how is his question. Could she be his killer? As he unravels her secrets, he becomes increasingly troubled by what he finds. While Elle is forced to reexamine every painful memory of the life she left behind, Ronan grows more and more sure of her innocence. But can he trust himself to uncover the truth amid their growing attraction?

 

Sophia Rose's Review:

Escaping an abusive husband leads to a new start in a California small coastal town, bounty-hunting, and eek, a serial killer.  Karen Rose’s long romantic suspense series introduces a new setting and a standalone that had me sitting up late for ‘what comes next?’

 

The One Who Walked Away appears to be a rare standalone in Karen Rose’s long Romantic Suspense series that is grouped into ‘city’ sub-series groupings.

 

Elle Randolph practiced family law, was married and living in Florida until a car crash and a whole community turning on her made her escape via an old college friend, Sara, who sets her up with a bounty hunting job in Northern California.  Elle’s latest job is a skip trace that is hiding in the area of a small Mendocino town, but her background and personal struggles have her vulnerable from guilt.  Elle’s investigation to track down her skip has her shocked when her investigation trail is criss-crossed by murders beginning with their innkeeper.  Against her boss’ advice, she talks to the police about what she knows though Sara thinks it will harm their work in catching the bail jumper.  Widowed dad, Ronan Clarke is just trying to keep his town safe, doesn’t care for the bounty hunters nosing around, and gradually seeing Elle is at the epicenter of this serial killer’s work.

 

The twisting, taut trail to catching the person behind it all as the bodies keep coming, the gorgeous, but atmospheric wild Mendocino backdrop, and the engaging complex characters of Ronan and Elle along with those around them- even the villain are what kept me reading swiftly through the chunk of a book to the startling reveal and finish.  I adored Ronan and Elle together.  She’s guarded and needs healing, but she’s a strong survivor while he wasn’t certain about her because of the way the deaths came with her always connected to them, but their partnership grew of necessity and their perfect fit for each other.  I liked how their growing light together balanced out the evil darkness of the killer.

 

The One Who Walked Away was another solid, stellar winner from Karen Rose.  Those who like small town mysteries with a bit of grit and a well written police procedural plot and layered characters should put this latest romantic suspense on the TBR list.

 

Author Bio:

International bestselling author Karen Rose was born and raised in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. She met her husband, Martin, on a blind date when they were seventeen and after they both graduated from the University of Maryland, (Karen with a degree in Chemical Engineering) they moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Karen worked as an engineer for a large consumer goods company, earning two patents, but as Karen says, “scenes were roiling in my head and I couldn't concentrate on my job so I started writing them down. I started out writing for fun, and soon found I was hooked.”

Her debut suspense novel, DON'T TELL, was released in July, 2003. Since then, she has published more than thirty novels and three novellas, along with several short stories.

 

Karen's books have appeared on the bestseller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, London's Sunday Times, and Germany's der Spiegel (#1), and the Irish Times, as well as lists in South Africa (#1) and Australia! To date, her books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

 

A former high school teacher of chemistry and physics, Karen lives in Washington State with her husband of forty years.

 

Sophia’s Bio:

Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.

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