Killing Time, by K. Dawn Byrd

Mindy McLaurin is incarcerated for a crime she did not commit.  While she was in jail,she was reunited with her long lost sister, only to then have the sister snatched from her grasp.  You see, odd things are happening in the jail.  Mindy's so called boyfriend, a private investigator looking into an inmate death, asks Mindy to try to get more information while on the inside, as opposed to helping get her out.  Mindy starts to develop a close bond with one of the prison employees, Stone.  Suddenly Mindy can no longer tell who is on her side, both on the inside and the outside.  Will Mindy ever find out the truth?

Yet another fantastic book from K. Dawn Byrd.  When I initially read the book, I could not put it down, and I had to force myself to slow my reading and not skip anything.  That was how anxious I was to find out the ending.  Killing Time keeps you on the edge of your seat with various plot twists, but not once does the plot get convoluted.  I think this is the mark of a superb suspense novel.  You can not help but feel for Mindy, incarcerated unjustly, losing people she cares about or think care about her.  She is such a gentle, relatable character, you almost feel as if you are sitting in the cell with her.

I personally loved the substory of the potential romance between Mindy and Stone.  It is not a sappy, drippy romantic storyline.  There is real conflict, not only within each character, but also between them, regarding the romance.  There are issues of faith, loss, and justice at stake. 

I was pleasantly surprised by the way the mystery part of the story is resolved.  The "villain" is an unlikely suspect, I never saw it coming. Typically, I like unusual endings, or at least endings with a twist, and this book certainly delivers.  I think readers will be quite shocked at the end of the book.  What happens?  Well, you will have to read it to find out.  Luckily, the book just released today, so go check it out.  I think you will be quite pleased.

A review copy of this book was provided courtesy of the author.