Wyoming Ranch Justice is the second book in the Cowboy State Lawmen: Duty and Honor series by Juno Rushdan. Having not read the first book in this series didn't hamper my enjoyment of this gritty, romantic suspense novel, which grabbed me from page one and worked just fine as a standalon. It gets 4.5 stars from this reader.
The main male character is Matt Granger, a rancher who chose a career in law enforcement, and is now working as the Chief of Security at a Wyoming university, in search of of vicious, sadistic, serial killer, nicknamed The University Killer, who abducts young, blonde-haired students, assaults and tortures them before killing them, and he has been committing these horrific crimes for more than a decade.
Also working the case, is Hannah Delaney, she's an undercover cop, who is also the daughter of a notorious serial killer, which just adds to her determination to find and arrest this one. In order to distance herself from her murderous father, she's changed her name, and is more than motivated to catch this killer and put an end to his many crimes.
Apparently Hannah and Matt worked together in the first novel in the series, and working together in this one starts out as a bit of a bumpy ride, as is the growing attraction between them. Matt thinks Hannah is too reckless--he's right about that, and Hannah thinks the opposite is true of Matt, but their working relationship leads to a bit of romance in this novel, and while I wish that the author had spent more time on their slow-growing relationship, the whodunit hunt for this sick, demented, serial killer kept me glued to this story, and kept me trying to guess who the guilty party was from beginning to end--and it worked, because I was completely wrong about who the killer was until his identity was revealed.
If you're a fan of romantic suspense/thrillers, I think you'll enjoy this taut, action-packed novel as much as I did, and I'll be backtracking to read the first novel in this series, and continue following it in the future. It was a very good read and I'm happy to recommend it.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.