Skye Fall

Edwards’s disappointing fourth entry in the Pressley-Coombes series (after Danger on the Loch) sees a young British nurse fleeing the country after she uncovers her boyfriend’s secret. Isla Montjoy thinks things are going well with her police officer boyfriend, Shay, until she arrives at his London apartment one evening and stumbles into his meeting with the Justice Seekers, a group moving arms to a white supremacist militia in Virginia. Shay stabs Isla, who survives and goes on the run. Six months later, Shay tracks her down in the Scottish Highlands and attacks her at the local hospital as she’s caring for businessman Richard Pressley-Coombes, who’s broken an ankle and cracked his ribs during a climbing excursion. After Shay escapes, Richard offers Isla a job as his caregiver that would bring her to the United States, and possibly out of Shay’s reach. But with the company’s finances in tatters, it’s unclear whether the family can keep Isla safe, even in Virginia; meanwhile, Isla becomes close with Richard’s son Ben, and she tries to trust in God that everything will work out for the best. Edwards’s plot is jam-packed but tends to feel stiff and overwrought—action scenes turn on coincidences and cheesy details, as when Shay attacks Isla in the hospital with a nylon over his face, and is knocked to the ground by a karate chop to the neck. Readers will hope Edwards finds her footing the next time out. (Oct.)