Tie Me Down is the first book I’ve read by Tracy Wolff, and, despite a few issues, I thought it was an engaging read, so it definitely won’t be my last.

Homicide Detective Genevieve Delacroix is on the hunt for the sadistic killer who’s been targeting women in New Orleans’ famous French Quarter. Although the crimes differ in execution, Genevieve’s gut is telling her it’s a serial killer, and she’s determined to catch him. Her biggest obstacle: her chauvinistic boss who hates having a woman on his homicide squad. Now Genevieve must fight to stay on the case and work to convince her boss that a serial killer is on the loose, before more women turn up dead.

Cole Adams is a documentary filmmaker determined to find his sister’s killer and close the seven year old cold case, and he’s returned to New Orleans to do just that. But after he pissed off the NOPD back then, his sister’s case was permanently buried and forgotten. So Cole will have to find a susceptible homicide detective to manipulate and persuade to secretly re-open the case, and he thinks Genevieve Delacroix will be perfect for the task. Too bad he wasn’t expecting the intense attraction that flares up between them, or the feelings he develops for the tough cop.

Overall I found Tie Me Down to be a nice mix of romantic suspense and erotica, although at times I found myself so interested in the mystery that I rushed through some sex scenes just to find out what happened next in the case. The killer’s identity was on the obvious side, but I was engrossed in the story the whole way through, so I found that it really didn’t mar my enjoyment too much.

I really liked Genevieve, despite a couple of issues. She’s a strong woman, and dedicated to her job, but she becomes a bit too submissive with Cole. There were times when I wanted her to stand up to him instead of putting up with his domineering behavior. She also does a couple of dumb things that no good cop would ever do, but she is far from TSTL, so I could forgive her. One thing I enjoyed was that even though Cole keeps a secret from her for most of the book, Genevieve is smart enough to put two and two together and figures out his secret pretty early on. Then she just waits until he’s ready to talk. It made the whole deception part of the story much easier for me to be okay with.

Cole is fairly easy to sympathize with given his back-story, but he was a bit harder to like than Genevieve. He has some anger issues that are glossed over and not resolved, but he’s also got good qualities to help balance his character, so overall I liked him.

If I were grading Tie Me Down based solely on the romance portion of the plot, I’d say it was about average. But add in an engrossing suspense plot and it lands in recommendation territory – albeit a qualified one.