Guarded Secrets

Guarded Secrets is a novel by the American writer Leann Harris, published in 2009 by Steeple Hill Books, the inspirational imprint of Harlequin. It is a romantic suspense novel with a Christian element.

Lilly Burkstrom dismisses her former husband's warning about being killed until he dies during a robbery, and then finds that the official account of what happened does not answer the questions she has. The police see a case that is already closed, and what follows is a series of intrusions into her home and into the apartment her ex-husband kept, which nobody official will treat as connected. The one person who takes her seriously is a detective named Jonathan Littledeer, who has his own reasons for understanding the situation, and the novel follows the two of them as the danger closes in on Lilly and the investigation becomes the ground on which their relationship develops. Harris writes for the inspirational market, so the romance is conducted within the characters' faith, and the suspense is domestic rather than procedural.

Steeple Hill published romance and romantic suspense for Christian readers in the same monthly format as the mainstream category lines, and this is one of a large number of titles in that programme.