STEPFORD USA: Lada Ray

Psychological mystery thriller set in an idyllic Massachusetts town harboring a dark secret, STEPFORD USA will dazzle you with an array of funny, outlandish, dangerous and utterly realistic characters. Who committed rape and murder: a corrupt police chief, crooked politician, millionaire-nerd, or womanizing banker?
Ladies from the Stepford Knitting Club know it all, except that the town has been hijacked by criminals posing as pillars of local community. That's where Jade Snow comes in. A new breed of amateur sleuths and international journalist, she's thoroughly at home in the brave, new, globalized world, but unprepared for one challenge: the dull existence in this sheltered American town. And that's exactly where she ends up after getting married and pregnant. Aided by a super-intelligent calico cat and a psychoanalyst from New York, Jade's on a mission to solve baffling mysteries, uncover a local conspiracy and turn this sleepy paradise upside down... if she can survive the attraction to an enigmatic convicted rapist, and the encounter with a desperate killer. 

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This is one of those books I just 'found' on my eReader. I had no recollection of downloading it (although I must have) but thought, 'what the hell, I'll give it a go'. It was a great surprise too. I thoroughly enjoyed the tale and it is one I would definitely recommend to others. It was well written and well presented with full, rounded characters that kept me reading to the end, and if there is a sequel, I'd definitely give it a go. The book would easily get five stars but for one thing--and this is purely personal. The psychic leanings didn't quite appeal to me and I felt the book could have stood equally as well without them. The character's own vivid imagination and investigative nature could have supported all of her visions (there aren't that many) which, for me personally, would have enhanced (note I say enhanced, not improved) the believability.