TEST
Brenda Joyce’s latest novel is a strangely compelling blend of mystery and melodrama. This is the kind of book where analyzing its pros and cons wouldn’t really describe the overall effect of reading it. For all its flaws – and there are plenty of them – it remains a compulsively readable story.
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Deadly Promise is the latest chapter in the saga of Francesca Cahill and the two men in her life: Police Commissioner Rick Bragg, the married man she loves, and Calder Hart, his rogue of a brother, to whom she is drawn. As the book opens, Francesca returns to New York after a brief vacation. Though no one knows it, she left town to consider a marriage proposal from Hart,; although she desires him she still has feelings for Bragg. Not long after her return, she attends a society event that includes Hart, Bragg and Bragg’s wife, Leigh Anne. As soon as Francesca and Hart are reunited, he takes matters in hand and announces their engagement to everyone before Francesca can warn Bragg.
Meanwhile, Francesca, an amateur sleuth (a word I got tired of hearing very quickly), gets involved in the case of a missing girl. She soon learns the girl is one of several girls who have disappeared recently and determines to find out what happened to them. Investigating the case brings her back into contact with Bragg. Working together just complicates their relationship, and hers with Hart.
Francesca is a maddeningly inconsistent character. She can be strong and forthright, but she is more often foolish and downright stupid. In the first chapter, she arrives at the ball wearing her most spectacular red dress. When Hart fails to notice, because his back is turned toward her and he doesn’t see her, Francesca becomes distraught and convinced their relationship is over:
He hadn’t looked at her even once-and she was wearing the eye-catching red dress. She was ill. He no longer liked her; he no longer found her at all interesting or alluring; he had a new paramour-he no longer wished to marry her.
Melodramatic, isn’t she? At first I was confused. Is Hart supposed to have some kind of dress-seeking radar that allows him to sense her and her magic dress when she’s behind him? Francesca can be brave then turn around and be utterly stupid. She’s a woman who has no trouble facing down evasive people, to the point of brandishing her gun and demanding answers. She’s also one who hears someone calling her name from the bushes and proceeds to wander up to them to see who it is without considering that the possible dangers. She has so many sensible moments that I tried to maintain the benefit of the doubt, until she hatched a plan of such astonishing stupidity late in the book that I had to give up on her sensibility. Unlike in good romantic mysteries, the relationship and suspense elements don’t enhance each other. Instead, they constantly seem to be working against each other. Here is a case involving little girls being kidnapped and sold into prostitution, yet it’s hard to take it too seriously when Francesca doesn’t. Her interest seems to come and go. When the heroine keeps taking time off from her investigation in order to pose for a nude portrait of herself, it’s difficult to remain engaged in the case. Just when the mystery plot hits its stride near the end, Joyce switches gears and returns to the relationship drama. Likewise, when the character drama begins to heat up, she shifts back to the mystery. Rather than build suspense, the shifts were jarring, irritating, and made the story lose momentum. Being taken away from something interesting just when it was getting good only annoyed this reader.
And yet, despite all the irritation, there were plenty of interesting moments. In spite of the frustrating heroine and a mystery that gets the short shrift, I was sucked right in to the complicated relationships between the four main characters. Most of this is due to the complex portrayals they’re given and how none of them fall into clear-cut good/bad categories. Hart is very much cut in the roguish hero mold, darkly sexual with a scandalous reputation. The way his feelings come through from beneath his rough exterior is well done and make him an appealing character. Bragg isn’t particularly likable, and he’ll likely test anyone’s patience with the way he keeps harping on how evil Leigh Anne is when there’s no evidence of it, but the same torment that makes him an exasperating character also keeps him interesting. Likewise, Leigh Anne is intriguing in the way she isn’t made a one-note spoiler for the love story, but an actual complicated woman with motives of her own. Nothing about these characters is spelled out in obvious terms, and I wanted to know more. The story ends with one character’s fate in jeopardy and the potential to complicate matters further.
Deadly Promise isn’t the kind of book that warrants a wholehearted recommendation. It’s more a guilty pleasure book, deeply flawed but full of juicy character drama that keeps it entertaining. Is it good? Not particularly. But it does make for a fairly absorbing read.
Grade: C+
Book Type: Historical Mystery
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 13/11/03
Publication Date: 2003
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.