Drowning in Silence by Demetrius M. Kelley

Twelve years ago, Nora Vance's older sister walked into the water off Cedar Harbor and never walked out. The department called it an accident. Nora has never believed that — and neither, she suspects, has the detective who was the last person to see Ellie alive. Now a true-crime podcaster with a reputation for cracking cold cases, Nora comes home to record one final episode and finally bury the questions that have followed her for over a decade. Instead, she finds a town that would rather she'd stayed away, files that have quietly gone missing from evidence storage, and a construction crew breaking ground on the very stretch of shoreline where her sister died. Detective Sawyer Marsh has spent twelve years living down suspicion he never fully shook — and trying not to think about the woman he loved and lost the same summer he almost lost his badge. He knows better than to get involved with the sister of his old case. He also knows Nora is asking the right questions, and that someone in Cedar Harbor wants those questions to stop. As anonymous warnings turn into break-ins, and break-ins turn into something far more dangerous, Nora and Sawyer are forced back into an uneasy partnership — one built on secrets, unfinished grief, and an attraction neither of them can afford. To find out what really happened to Ellie, they'll have to figure out who in their small town is willing to kill to keep the truth buried — before the tide takes someone else. Fast-paced, twisty, and edge-of-your-seat, with a slow-burn reunion at its heart, Chasing the Undertow is a standalone romantic suspense you won't want to put down. Tropes: Small-Town Suspense • Cold Case Reopened • Law-Enforcement Hero • Wounded Heroine • Who-Can-She-Trust • Slow Burn