When someone understands every clue except the ones pointing toward affection, romance becomes an intriguing puzzle. Detective Pemberton’s Lessons in Love by Richard Enns builds its appeal around that possibility. A missing emerald brings urgency, while an unexpected connection gives this series opener its warmth.
Love Among the Unanswered Questions
Arthur Pemberton’s daily work depends on observation. As a property-crimes detective in Ocean View, he studies evidence with patience and precision, finding meaning in details that others might overlook. A misplaced file or an altered security log deserves his attention. An unexplained smile leaves him considerably less certain.
That uncertainty becomes especially engaging when Chloe Vance enters his life. She runs Petal and Stem, the flower shop across the street from a historic clock shop involved in his latest investigation. Chloe has an extraordinary ability to notice overlooked details, particularly those connected to people’s feelings and motivations.
Arthur keeps trying to define their association as professional. His repeated visits suggest an attachment taking shape, and the premise adds a charming complication: he’s unaware that they’re dating. The detective who carefully examines probabilities has a personal situation unfolding beyond the categories he understands.
There’s plenty of room for humor in that arrangement. Readers can enjoy the anticipation surrounding Arthur’s eventual recognition of what those encounters mean. His growing connection with Chloe gives the story an emotional thread that runs alongside the investigation, inviting interest in their conversations, choices, and willingness to trust each other.
Arthur is neurodivergent and has dyslexia and ADHD. These aspects of his identity accompany his distinctive habits, professional abilities, and difficulties interpreting social cues. They help establish a specific individual whose experience of the world shapes the relationship at the center of the book.
Chloe has a complicated past of her own. She’s recovering from heroin addiction and has left behind a period of promiscuity. Her important cigarette ritual adds another particular detail to her characterization. Those elements invite readers to approach her as someone with a personal history, ongoing recovery, and an intuitive understanding of others.
A Valuable Jewel and a Dangerous Trail
The disappearance of the Chronos Emerald gives Arthur a case suited to his attention to detail. The jewel vanishes from a historic clock shop without an obvious sign of forced entry. Such an absence immediately raises questions about access, preparation, and the circumstances surrounding the theft.
A gap of eleven minutes in surveillance footage deepens the intrigue. For a detective who values patterns, an interruption in the recorded sequence provides something worth examining closely.
His inquiries lead into suspicious business dealings and encounters with professional thieves and security experts. A rival jeweler also appears to possess knowledge he’s holding back. This range of possible connections gives readers several avenues to consider as they follow the missing emerald through an increasingly dangerous case.
Chloe’s contribution introduces another way of interpreting the people caught up in the investigation. She recognizes motives and emotional signals that Arthur struggles to understand. Their partnership therefore carries practical significance, bringing together observations that can help them assess what lies behind a person’s behavior.
As the danger grows, trust becomes essential to their shared efforts. That development connects the mystery with the romance in a natural way. Working together requires Arthur to consider another person’s judgment, while their developing attachment adds emotional stakes to the choices ahead.
This book launches the Detective Pemberton series and serves as a spin-off connected to Richard’s Michael Tough Mystery Series. Police investigation, character-driven romance, and humor all contribute to its premise. Readers who enjoy getting acquainted with recurring characters have an appealing starting point in Arthur and Chloe’s unusual partnership.
About Author
Richard spent nearly 22 years working for the San Diego County Probation Department before retiring as a probation officer. His academic background includes a bachelor’s degree in History from North Park College in Chicago and a Master of Divinity from North Park Theological Seminary.
He resides in San Diego with his wife and two children. His previously written thrillers include The Least of These, The Gynecologist’s Daughter, The Noblest Motive, The Public Good, and It Started With a Murder. This new series adds Arthur’s distinctive perspective and developing romantic life to his body of crime fiction.
Where the Next Discovery Leads
Available on Amazon, Detective Pemberton’s Lessons in Love offers a mystery with an affectionate, character-centered premise. Arthur’s search for a stolen emerald opens the door to another discovery, one shaped by Chloe, shared trust, and the gradual recognition of love.
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