Kantra provides a solid beginning to her new Trouble in Eden series with All a Man Can Do.

Jarek Denko is a new guy in town. He’s also the new police chief and must deal with the unhappy task of persuading Eden’s citizens that he knows what he’s doing while at the same time defusing the lieutenant who thinks he should have been the one who got Denko’s job. Unfortunately for Denko’s objectives, a brutal rape occurs in Eden, and the crime scene is messed up before Denko can arrive. To further add to his headaches, the victim swears her assailant pulled her over in a car that was flashing red lights.

Tess DeLucca is a reporter for the Eden Town Gazette. It’s her job to follow up on the rape story and to try and make sense of this brutal act that occurred in usually peaceful Eden. She also wants to do a piece on the new police chief. Jarek stonewalls her at first, unwilling to give her even the smallest of leads on either the rape or his own story, but when he realizes that ticking her off might mean bad PR, he tries to be more accommodating. An instant attraction springs up between them despite the fact that Tess is commitment-phobic and Denko, as a single father and overworked cop, is hardly in a position to start a new relationship.

Before things can really get going, complications arise. It seems that Tess’s brother, Mark, was the last person to talk to the victim before she was found raped. Other clues point to him as well. Tess is positive Mark had nothing to do with it, but the DeLucca family’s bad reputation in Eden does nothing to aid Mark’s case. She begins to dig in and investigate, but the more she tries to help Jarek (and, Mark) the more the police force questions Jarek’s objectivity. Can Jarek be at all objective about the case when it involves the woman he’s starting to love?

Usually, I’m not much of a fan of the more action parts of a plot. I much prefer the angst, the introspection, and the quiet romantic aspects of a story. But Kantra does a fine job structuring her book, and the tension and mystery are well developed and maintained. Several scenes, one in particular involving Mark, Tess, and Jarek, are thoroughly absorbing. The emotion is so strong it threatens to well up and spill over the edge of the pages.

The sexual tension between Jarek and Tess is also well done. Their first kiss is notably warm, and their flirting, pushing, challenging relationship throws off more than a few sparks. It’s funny, though, that the build up to the intimacy seemed hotter, in a way, than the sex itself.

As a couple, Jarek and Tess work well. Jarek is sensitive to Tess’s insecurities and while he is frustrated by her efforts to prove her brother’s innocence, he retains his sense of humor about it for the most part. Though the development of the relationship seems a bit rushed, you can’t help but feel that they will be good for each other.

Tess is vulnerable but loyal to the extreme, and it’s easy to sympathize with her. Her relationship with her brother is very intense, and Mark himself is an intriguing character. More of him would have been good. In fact, it would have been better if Kantra had not introduced Jarek’s touchy, pre-adolescent daughter, Allie, and had spent more of the time devoted to her on Mark instead. As it was, questions were raised about how Allie would settle into her relationship with her father and a new town. Those questions were never satisfactorily answered. Similarly, Tess’s relationship with her mother is strained because of her mother’s lifelong alcoholism. Their relationship is almost completely unexplored, but there are hints that they might be coming to an understanding at the end of the book. This loose end seemed almost too unimportant to bother tying up.

Virginia Kantra is a writer I’ve been following with interest. All a Man Can Do isn’t my favorite book of hers; that would be Mad Dog and Annie. But this one has some bright moments and an appealing intensity. It was definitely worth a read. It will be interesting to see where she takes this series. The next book is about Jarek’s brother, Alex, and I will be picking it up.