Betrayals, by Kelley Armstrong

Betrayals is the fourth book in Kelley Armstrong's Cainsville series. It is also her publishers' third attempt at finding the right cover art style for these books. (The first two installments were American Gothic; the third was modern and geometric.) I really like both the look and the contents of Betrayals, so I'm hoping the ever-changing cover design isn't a sign that these books aren't living up to sales expectations.

At this point in the series, Armstrong's many plot threads are in full gear: department store heiress Olivia Taylor Jones has discovered that her biological parents were a notorious pair of serial killers. She has established herself in the strange little town of Cainsville, and is tangled up with two very different men—Ricky, the heir to a powerful biker gang, and Gabriel, a ruthless lawyer. Mystical forces are pulling the trio into one disaster after another, and the latest problem centers around a string of murdered street kids in Chicago. The police suspect Ricky, and Olivia and Gabriel are determined to clear his name.

While I've enjoyed all of the Cainsville books, I've been underwhelmed by the dishwater-dull Olivia and her picture-perfect relationship with Ricky. Olivia is still pretty boring (alas), but Betrayals takes several steps forward on both the plot and character development fronts. I had previously consigned this series to the list of books that I found more intellectually interesting than emotionally engaging, but if Armstrong keeps up this installment's momentum (and gives her heroine just the tiniest bit of a personality) I might move it to the short list of books that manage to be both.