Maddie Foster has been hired to inventory and research the remains in the museum at the Kocher mansion, but she is creeped out by Troy Kocher who is working there as a security guard, so she calls her friend Trina whose husband owns Raptor Security and asks if operative Josh Warner who has recently moved to Portland will act as her boyfriend in order to make Troy back off. Josh is busy trying to get his teenage niece, Ava settled after her father is sent to prison and get a new branch of Raptor Security open in Portland, but he agrees to help. When local white supremacists become involved in her mission, Maddie realizes that more is going on in the Kocher mansion than just issues with the the remains she is researching.
There are parts of Tainted Evidence that I really like. Maddie Foster is an excellent protagonist. Even though she knows she is in love with Josh, when he does something that shows he doesn't trust her, she steps back from him and stands up for herself. The topics introduced are very timely, including lots of realistic details involving museology, security, teenage angst, and violent protests. Unfortunately the plot gets lost at times because there is just so much going on and so many ideas being presented. This could easily been two different books or one much longer novel and would have been a better read. Overall, however, this is still enjoyable to read. ( )

Tainted Evidence by Rachel Grant is the 10th book in her Evidence series and it is so very powerful. With this installment, we get Raptor operative Josh Warner’s story, and it is a difficult and emotional ride for him and Maddie Foster, a museologist, who also is going through an emotional time. There is also a storyline about protesters, counterprotesters working with police, racists, and white supremacists. Because of that, reading this at this time, was a deeper experience than I expected it to be. I still could not put the book down and it was fabulous.

The story takes place in Oregon where Maddie is working identifying human remains to see if they are ancient and indigenous people who should be repatriated to their Native American tribes, but the Kocher family, whose museum house these bones, are against her being there or proving that they looted native lands of their treasures and bones. They are trying to make Maddie's life as difficult as possible as she tries to do her job so she calls a friend to help with keeping her safe and that is when the story gets really good. Enter Josh, a Raptor operative sent by her friend Trina, who not only pretends to be her boyfriend as they first meet, but does so with a kiss. Well you can just imagine how their story will progress, but there are also difficult family lives and relatives, protesters fighting in the area that end up becoming part of what needs to get solved and just when you think there might be some redemption for some, it all twists again and points you in another unexpected direction.

As with other books by Rachel, because of her experience as an archaeologist, there is so much depth in the research and historical story, something that makes the reading experience richer for me. She also writes fabulous relationship stories. This book seemed so real, so current and so emotional, that I read it in a day because I couldn’t put it down. Yes this is part of a series, and yes if you read the series in order you will get a richer experience, but, she lays the story out so well right from the beginning you could read this as a stand alone although if you do, I guarantee you, you will then want to read all the books that came before this in the series because you will now be hooked and want to read more. ( )