Whispers in the Dark by: Eleanor Taylor Bland 2001 Native American (And Other Ethnic as African American, Hispanic)

I was not a big fan of this book. It contained two murder/attempted murder stories in one. The story was centered around Marti Macalister. She is a detective and her husband, Ben, is a paramedic. They have a blended family after the death of both of their previous spouses.

One story that takes place within the novel involved a series of arms which were found in the woods. There seems to be little to link the arms because they are found in a period of over 20 years. Two of the arms have materials linked to artists under their fingernails (one had paint and the other contained chemicals used to develop film). Marti and her partner Vik began asking questions in the artist community. They discovered a local artist named Lucy Carlisle stole art from other people and tried to pass it off as her own. When the artists came back to claim their work, Lucy killed them. The home she lived in was being sold to the government. The part being sold contained the shed that she had buried the bodies under. Once Lucy knew she was caught she shot herself.

In the other part of the story, Marti's best friend, Sharon gets herself in a lot of trouble. Sharon was born to a twelve year old named Rayveena. Rayveena entertained a lot of men during Sharon's childhood. She contracted AIDS and was dying. Sharon could not deal with her mother's illness. Sharon was dating a man named DeVonte. She had sent her daughter, Lisa to live with Marti because she did not want to introduce her daughter to DeVonte yet. Sharon and DeVonte decide to elope and take a honeymoon in his condo in the Bahamas. Sharon does not realize that DeVonte has killed several other women for their money. DeVonte did not realize Sharon had a daughter and therefore would have to split the life insurance and 401K from his wife's death. DeVonte lures Lisa to the island to kill her as well. Both Sharon and Lisa survive the attacks and return home safely. The book ends with DeVonte on a cruise for Hawaii looking for his next victim.

I feel this book would have been much better if it just focused on the story of Sharon and DeVonte. The story of the old artist murderer was not that interesting or believable. I feel like the author just tried to do too much and did not do either story justice.