Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: The Paternity Puzzle
SERIES: Sawyer and Royce: Felonies and Fatherhood
AUTHOR: Aimee Nicole Walker
PUBLISHER: Chasing Rainbows Press LLC
LENGTH: 208 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2025
BLURB:
Royce Locke and Sawyer Key are back and better than ever with new mysteries and hilarious shenanigans as they tackle their greatest challenge yet: fatherhood.
A perfect holiday weekend takes a twisted turn when Royce investigates a suspicious death involving Dr. Jean Claude Matisse, a retired pioneer in fertility medicine. What first looks like an accidental overdose quickly turns into something more sinister when explosive allegations reveal hundreds of reasons why someone would want the doctor dead.
This investigation hits close to home, exposing the vulnerabilities of relying on science and a doctor’s ethics to have a family, especially when the hopeful husbands are only a positive pregnancy test away from parenthood.
The Paternity Puzzle is book one in the Felonies and Fatherhood trilogy, the third story arc for Royce Locke and Sawyer Key. ** New readers should start with the Zero Hour and Matrimony and Mayhem trilogies before reading Felonies and Fatherhood. ** The Paternity Puzzle continues Royce and Sawyer’s happily ever after as they move into the most anticipated phase of their lives. Though some storylines span the trilogy, this book does not end in a cliffhanger. Heat, humor, heart, and homicide abound. You have been warned. 18+
REVIEW:
NOTE: This is the start of a new trilogy, but it won’t make a lot of sense if you haven’t read the Zero Hour or Matrimony and Mayhem trilogies or the first where this couple gets together and continue their journey through marriage.
Royce Locke and Sawyer Key are about to embark on their most critical endeavor: becoming fathers. Both men are excited and nervous about embarking on this journey. Sawyer has more trepidation and nerves because he has been down this path once before with his late husband. He’s not sure if he’s tempting fate and asking for too much since he feels so lucky that he has Royce and the fur kids. For his part, Locke is most worried about not repeating the past and his contentious (although improving) relationship with his own father. They are both frankly a bundle of nerves as the process with the surrogacy and they friend Kelsey who will carry their child.
While they are on tenterhooks about the procedure, they get dragged into a case that is tangentially related to their own personal journey to creating their family. A suspicious death of a prominent fertility doctor on the eve of a publishing a damaging expose make things even stranger for our guys. This case really exacerbates all the worries that Sawyer already has about their path to fatherhood. Royce is so good and helping Sawyer figure out a way to deal with his fears and they revolve around communication 🙂 Imagine!
In the meantime Royce is in charge of one of the most bizarre investigations he’s ever faced. And there are heavy hitters who are relying on him getting the real answers here and investigating what really happened. It’s a bit of a rollercoaster that impacts their holiday weekend, but it’s not the first time their jobs have disrupted their personal lives 🙂 But the suspects here are real doozies! Getting to the truth is helpful sometimes when people are willing to turn on each other 😉
This is a wonderful kick-off to a new trilogy starring our favorite Savannah PD detectives and now husbands, Royce Locke and Sawyer Key. Now that they have settled into marriage, they want to start a family. Bestie Kelsey has offered to carry their child and so they are off 🙂 But of course as usual, things don’t go smoothly for these two. The major focus of this book is NOT solving a crime (although there is that too), but in the relationship and personal changes these guys are going through as they prepare for a whole new chapter. Royce continues to work on his relationship with Eddie and they have some real moments here as Eddie is trying to mend his relationship with his children. Sawyer is a bundle of nerves after getting so close to his dreams in the past and then having the rug pulled out from under him. Together they negotiate a new world of preparing for fatherhood. As usual there is plenty of humor with their found family of friends and colleagues. Their pets continue to provide plenty of comic relief also. There is even a seduction via cleaning machine 😉 I love these two and could read about them forever! I cannot recommend this book more highly. Fans of this couple will LOVE this book. Read it now!
RATING: 
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