Authors Kendra Elliot and Melinda Leigh are both successful mystery writers with a combined readership of more than 27 million, and “Echo Road” is their first cowritten mystery, four years in the making. While they’ve been friends for over a decade, and cowritten novellas, this is their first novel—and it is well worth the wait.

Mercy Kilpatrick from Elliot’s eponymous series and Bree Taggert from Leigh’s also eponymous series join forces in this action-filled novel to identify and stop a serial killer before he can claim one more victim, the daughter of a U.S. Senator. While on the east coast, Taggert is dealing with the grisly discovery of two bodies, women packed in suitcases and left on the side of a road, Oregon-based Kilpatrick is brought into the disappearance of Paige Holcroft, a senator’s daughter. When there is evidence that Paige might be in upstate New York, Kilpatrick is sent to investigate. That’s where the two women meet.

The narrative is picture perfect. We know upfront from whose point of view each chapter is written, Bree’s or Mercy’s. And while their narrative is written in third person, there are also chapters written in first person from “him,” the serial killer, and from Paige, the kidnapped senator’s daughter. The alternating narrative and point of view, and even the alternating voice, keep the tension high and the pages turning.

What the two authors have managed to do with this introduction of their characters working together is write a story that, like a romance, builds as the two women meet, overcome trust issues, and come to really care about each other. Prevalent in the narrative is the way that men all too often discount women and their abilities. The very misogynistic killer, of course, doesn’t believe that mere women will ever outthink him. But other men, law enforcement types from the FBI and local deputies, also think they can do better than Taggert and Kilpatrick simply because of their Y chromosome. They are proved wrong, much to our delight.

While this would make a great movie or series, the ending was written in such a way that seeing it happen on the screen would make it happen much too quickly. The narrative of the climax, the danger from not just the killer but Mother Nature, is exhilarating. We can smell the smoke from the wildfire as we follow the women as they risk life and limb to rescue Paige and each other.

While I have read and enjoyed (and reviewed) all of the Bree Taggert series, I have not had the pleasure of reading the Mercy Kilpatrick series. That is an oversight that will soon be remedied. I’m guessing that readers who are only familiar with one of the series by these two authors will also be motivated to read the other series. The women in these novels are both strong, admirable main characters. I hope they get together again.

Please note: This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.