Concrete Evidence by DiAnn Mills

Concrete Evidence
by DiAnn Mills

ISBN-13: 9781496451903
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Tyndale House
Released: October 4th 2022

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
On the family's Brazos River Ranch in Texas, Avery Elliott helps run her grandfather's commercial construction business. Raised by Senator Elliott, Avery has never doubted her grandfather is the man of integrity and faith she's always believed him to be . . . until the day she finds him standing with a gun over the body of a dead man. To make matters worse, Avery's just discovered a billing discrepancy for materials supposedly purchased for construction of the Lago de Cobre Dam.

Desperate for answers, Avery contacts FBI Special Agent Marc Wilkins for help. As Marc works to identify the dead man Avery saw, threats toward Avery create a fresh sense of urgency to pinpoint why someone wants to silence her. With a hurricane approaching the Texas coast and the structural integrity of the Lago de Cobre Dam called into question, time is running out to get to the bottom of a sinister plot that could be endangering the lives of not only Avery and her loved ones but the entire community.


My Review:
Concrete Evidence is a Christian romantic suspense. Some parts of this story were unrealistic and others were never satisfactorily explained. So much about horses was wrong. I shook my head in disbelief when Avery, an expert rider, took her minimally trained, hard-to-control stallion out to round up livestock during a crisis instead of a steady, dependable horse. She then rode him to the rescue, shooting her gun from the back of a moving horse, using her non-dominate hand, and still hit a small, distant target. The horse didn't startle even though you have to train a horse to get used to a sudden, loud noise coming from right behind their head. Also, shooting from horseback is very different from and harder than standing still on the ground while shooting at an unmoving target.

While I enjoyed that the heroine rescued the hero, this came at the expense of the hero being incredibly dumb. He knew who the killer was. He saw that the person had a hidden gun. He didn't call/text for backup. He didn't put off the confrontation and arrange for a safe arrest later. No, he confronted the killer and immediately gave up when the killer pulled the gun, like he hadn't expected that response. Sigh.

On to the unexplained: The bad person wanted something and stated Avery knew what it was, but no one did. No one tried to figure it out, either. It turned out to be a digital file, yet the killer acted like there was only the one copy of it. And it's not like that was the only evidence against the killer. Also, the first video of the dam inspection wasn't fake, so how did no one notice the foundation was flawed or that it was the same video in the second inspection? Surely multiple people viewed the thing. Surely several different people carried out independent inspections of the foundation before the rest of the dam was built, etc.

Avery and Marc were both nice people, but they didn't share any interests and didn't always get along. For example, she left the ranch knowing she was going to a person who was a suspected killer. She delayed telling Marc because she didn't want to be stopped. She found evidence and called Marc. He told her to get away from the place until they got there. She refused just to be ornery. Um, to protect evidence that didn't need protecting. Marc wanted to wring her neck. Yet he kept thinking about what a good team they made? Well, about her lips, at least. It seemed like they wanted to get married so they could freely kiss (and more). Marc and Avery both just assumed that she'd go live with him and live at his paygrade even though she's rich. I'd have preferred they discussed it beyond a few sentences, summarized: 'You'll have to give up living wealthy!' which was met with 'No problem' rather than 'Why?'

The constant danger was suspenseful. The mystery was both complex and oddly easy to solve. (I was sure whodunit was a certain person. Avery was certain it wasn't him, even though all evidence pointed toward him, so I said, 'if not him, then that person.' I was right.) The characters were likable. So it's not a bad story, but more...exasperating. There was no sex or bad language.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.