Book ~ "Finding Harmony" (2014) Pamela Fagan Hutchins

From Goodreads ~ Katie’s already on edge when a dead guy shows up at Estate Annalise and shady locals claim there are slave remains in the foundation but when Nick doesn’t come home to her and the kids from work one day, she’s ready to lose it. 

A frantic Katie launches a Caribbean-wide manhunt, calling on Kurt, her stoic, steady father-in-law, and Collin, her badass big brother to help her search air, land, and sea for her husband, who may be in very big trouble indeed. 

Katie and Nick are married and have three young children (twin babies and they have adopted Nick's nephew ... his sister had recently died).  They live on the Caribbean island of St. Marcos in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Katie had moved there from Dallas three years ago after she fell in love with her house, Annalise, a jumbie (as in voodoo spirit) house.  Nick's parents, Kurt and Julie, also live with them.

After they discover a man dead in a car of an apparent suicide at the bottom of their driveway, Nick and Katie (who are investigators) are hired by the guy's large corporation employer to find out what happened.  A couple days into the investigation, Nick disappears.  With the help of Kurt, Collin (Katie's brother), Annalise and Katie's dreams of Nick giving her messages, they set off to find Nick.

Though this is the third in the Katie & Annalise series (I'd read the first one, Saving Grace, last year and liked it), it also works well as a stand alone.  The author captures the flavour of the island well with the dialect in the conversations, traditions (the book starts out with Nick having to catch a pig for the christening party of their twins), islanders versus non-islanders, etc.

There was lots going on with the suicide, Nick's disappearance, the discovery that Annalise might have been built over a slave graveyard, etc.  I found this book to be more serious than the first one which is to be expected, I guess, considering Katie is now married, is a mother of three and has acknowledged her dependence on alcohol.

Having a voodoo house that protects them and getting messages in her dreams from Nick about his whereabouts gives what could have been a standard mystery an extra interesting kick.

I received a copy of this ebook from the author at no charge in exchange for my honest review.