Eugenia Lovett West is an American author who attended Sarah Lawrence College and worked for Harper’s Bazaar and the American Red Cross. Her first novel was “The Ancestors Cry Out” and was followed by two Emma Streat mysteries: “Without Warning” and “Overkill” and the historical novel “Sarah’s War.” Her latest novel, “Firewall: An Emma Streat Mystery” was released in November and has Emma involved in the dark world of cybercrime when her rich, feisty, socialite godmother is blackmailed and turns to Emma for help.

The Emma Streat Mysteries revolve around Emma, a former opera singer who survived the murder of her husband and the destruction of her beautiful old house. She is now a single mother struggling to move on and make a home for her two sons. Because of her detective skills and her connections, she has become a go-to-person when family and friends are in trouble. “Firewall” begins with Emma’s plans for a Caribbean getaway disrupted when her godmother Caroline calls her and demands she drop everything to help her find her ex-husband Pierre who she believes is behind a blackmail attempt. Caroline mentions that Pierre was last seen in Paris so Emma cancels her plans to go halfway around the world to find him despite the fact that Caroline already paid the ransom demand. This case takes Emma to exclusive European settings where she interacts with top people in the financial and art world . Along the way, she has to rely on a past lover for information, she gets caught up in a kidnapping and is herself kidnapped and nearly killed. It takes all her resilience and wits to get her through it all and bring a ruthless criminal to justice.

Emma Streat is back in top form for another thrill ride of mystery solving. Her character is well developed from past novels: she is smart with admirable detective skills but is easily swayed and does not seem to be in control of her own life. Her newest mystery is an enjoyable and easy read with a story that moves along at a brisk pace written in down to earth language. The first person narration draws the reader into Emma’s life and provides insight into her thought processes. The first part develops the blackmail story but part two has little to do with this storyline and does not circle back to Caroline and her situation. Hopefully it will be addressed in future novels. There are several sub-plots with characters that keep changing and then abruptly dropped and only one briefly deals with cybercrime, as promised by the title. Overall, “Firewall” is a combination of mystery, suspense and romance with enough thrills and plot twists to keep the reader guessing and is recommended for fans of mystery and suspense novels.

*The author received a copy of this book for an honest review. The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to her.