Bea Reviews Toxin Alert by Tyler Anne Snell

Series: Tactical Crime Division: Traverse City #2
Read As A Stand Alone: Yes
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 1st, 2020
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

After biological terrorism rips through an Amish community, the Tactical Crime Division is called in to find out why.

Following a deadly anthrax attack, TCD’s biological weapons expert Carly Welsh springs into action. Problem is, the Amish trust no one—especially not an FBI special agent. That’s where Noah Miller comes in. Even though the rancher left the fold decades ago, the community trusts him…and so does Dr. Welsh. But even their combined courage and smarts might not be enough against sinister forces that want them both to perish.

From Harlequin Intrigue: Seek thrills. Solve crimes. Justice served.

My Thoughts:

I'm working on a binge of Linda Castillo's Amish mystery series, the Kate Burkholder series, and loving it, so when I saw this on NetGalley, I snapped it up. Yay for pre-approval! Thanks Harlequin!

Unfortunately, the book did not live up to my hopes. It's not bad, and I kept reading, but the heroine, Carly, definitely had some TSTL moments. Some of her actions of strained credibility for a professional agent, and that her boss didn't call her out on them and she didn't get in any trouble, not even a slap on the wrist, just ratcheted down believability. And the motive of the villain and the overall plot just...too complicated and hard to believe. It did keep me guessing; I was throwing out theories left and right. I don't mind that at all but I prefer it to be because the plot is complex not because it's ridiculous.

I did like Carly, her team, and Noah. While not as well-developed as I would have liked, they were interesting. They just weren't always believable as FBI agents. Well, Noah was a farmer and that was fairly believable, other than how much free time he seemed to have. I liked that initially Carly and Noah's romance was a slow burn. So slow, in fact, that at times I questioned if there would even BE a romance. But that picked up  bit and then the ending, WHAM! We hit warp 10 light speed. The pacing of the book was uneven and it was easy to put it down. 

So what did I like? The setting, the concept, the team's closeness, and the potential for this series. Snell's writing was meh but I expect I'll check out more in this series and hope for better results.