After reading a parade of mediocre books and outright duds recently, I was starting to wonder if I was ever going to like anything again. Black Widow has restored my faith in the publishing world. It’s not exactly perfect, but it’s well written and solidly enjoyable. And even more impressive – this is author Laurie Breton’s first book. It’s always great to see a first-time author write a book of this quality.

The Black Widow for which the book is named is Kathryn McAllister. Framed for her husband’s murder, Kathryn has just spent four years in prison waiting for her conviction to be overturned. As soon as she’s free, Kathryn heads right to the scene of the crime, the small town of Elba, North Carolina, with one goal in mind: to find her husband’s real killer. The citizens of Elba are none too happy to see her. As far as they are concerned, she has been tried and found guilty; they’re sure her conviction could only have been overturned on a technicality.

One of Kathryn’s first acts when she arrives back in town is to visit the new chief of police, Nick DiSalvo, to ask that her husband’s case be reopened. Nick is a transplanted “Yankee” like herself, and both of them feel an immediate attraction to each other. Nick is unwilling to look into the case at first. Like the other townspeople, he think she ought to leave well enough alone and just get out of town. But when it becomes clear that Kathryn’s life is in danger, he starts to ask a few questions. Then another murder takes place, and it seems to be connected to the murder of Kathryn’s husband. As Kathryn and Nick start working together to find the killer, their relationship begins to heat up. Several town secrets are exposed as well. But can they find the killer before it’s too late?

Black Widow is well-plotted, with secrets popping up everywhere. They are revealed slowly, and at first it’s not clear which ones are significant to the case, and which are just thrown in as decoys. I have to admit that I guessed one or two, but the identity of the villain eluded me until almost the very end.

There is a nice balance between the suspense and romance here. The book has plenty of action, but Kathryn and Nick also manage to develop a meaningful, believable relationship. There are a lot of characters here, but somehow the stage never seems too crowded, and I never had a problem remembering who was who. Perhaps this is because Breton makes each secondary character distinct; even those that are only briefly mentioned have a definite personality.

The one problem I had was with the ending, which is of the James Bond variety. I’m sure you know what I mean; it’s the type of thing they make fun of in Austin Powers when Dr. Evil decides to leave Austin in an “easily escapable situation and assume it all goes to plan.” That’s exactly what the villain does here, and it seems a little out of character.

Fortunately, this flaw seems relatively small in the grand scheme of things, especially when compared with everything right in this book. Newbie Laurie Breton provides an enjoyable read here, and it looks like she’s definitely one to watch.