A Deeper Darkness by J.T. Ellison

Samantha Owens is a medical examiner and she's very good at her job. But since she lost her husband and her children to the Nashville floods, her heart isn't in it anymore. She just goes through the motions. She's been grieving for over two years now and when it gets to be too much for her, she cleans herself. It could be just her hands with sanitizer or a full body shower. She counts to herself, One Mississippi, two Mississippi... She isn't sure what to do anymore. She doesn't want to live and she doesn't want to die.

When an old friend calls her with the sad news that Samantha's first love, Edward Donovan, has died, Sam is overwrought. She's always wondered 'what if' as the years have rolled by and she knows she still loves him. When his mother begs Sam to come up and do a second autopsy, Sam's defenses slam down. She doesn't know if she can handle it, but if Eleanor is right, that Eddie was murdered, then he deserves justice and all she can do to help.
 
When she arrives, she is met by Eddie's grieving wife, Susan, with coolness. Susan knows how much Samantha and Eddie meant to one another at a different time, but she is still jealous. Eventually though, she overcomes her feelings to ask Sam for her help in finding out who killed Eddie. Sam's findings do prove Eddie was killed and she involves herself in the investigation. But when things begin to heat up and someone tries to kill her, she realizes that she does want to live, but at what cost?

J.T. Ellison fans will remember Samantha as the best friend of Taylor Jackson, Ellison's TAYLOR JACKSONseries. Taylor does not make an appearance, but Samantha holds her own, even as she's grieving and trying to right her upside down life. With grief, friendship, the blossom of romance and the searing intense heat of suspicion that only Ellison can provide, A DEEPER DARKNESS is a must read for thriller fans! I can't wait for more!