TEST
Well, after a long string of books I either really liked or loved, I found one that left me shaking my head in confusion. I just couldn’t figure out why these two people ended up together.
Susan Hallston’s neighbor and friend, Linda Kinter, is murdered after a girls’ night out reveals her husband’s secret child and former wife. Everyone believes it’s suicide, except Detective Adam Riley. He has his doubts, and they center around Susan, and are based on the long-ago death of her abusive husband and her supposed, unrequited love for Ken, the dead woman’s husband.
Susan holds to her belief that Linda died of an aneurysm or heart attack (stated too many times) because to imagine it was suicide would be to blame herself for leaving Linda alone.
Adam’s former partner was murdered by Lisa, his partner’s innocent-looking wife, so, since Susan is innocent-looking, too, she must be bad.
To give him credit, Adam tries not to show favorites because he’s attracted to Susan, but his scenarios about how she murdered her friend and a neighbor’s daughter, just stretched my belief too far. He’s attracted to her one minute and convinced she’s innocent, and the next, he thinks of Lisa, and believes Susan guilty. He even goes so far as to dredge up her husband’s ten-year-old death to try to pin it on her. I just didn’t get this guy, and I couldn’t care about him.
Susan and Adam’s relationship consists of brief encounters and verbal sparring. They don’t date, they just bicker. She’s attracted to him, too, but her abusive husband has left her cautious of men. He pushes her until she has nightmares about her husband, and he finally realizes the way to win her trust is to prove her innocence … not accuse her all the time.
Duh!!! Suddenly, he’s convinced she’s innocent. And oh, by the way, he wants to marry her. Susan’s neighbors reminded me of the folks of Knots Landing. It was a very active little corner … affairs, blackmail, and murder. The murder did stump me, but by the time I got to the end of the book, I had to make myself care. Also, the repeated accusations of Susan’s unrequited love for Ken, and her denials, got old. I believed her … why didn’t everyone else, and why didn’t they shut up already?
The good thing about the book was the heroine. She reacted in a perfectly normal manner to the things happening around her. She was attracted to Adam, but wary because of her abusive husband. Her caution around men seemed perfectly normal. She was also exasperated with everyone around her,but she was nice and helpful anyway. The character of Susan was the only normal one in a cast of annoyances.
I found no fault with August’s writing style, just her characters. She just didn’t build enough of a relationship between these two for me to believe by the end of the book, they were talking marriage, and frankly, if you couldn’t tell, they annoyed me. I picked this one up because I enjoyed this author’s book for the 36 Hours mini-series, and because it had the policeman icon on the cover. I really like stories with policemen as heroes (think George Clooney as Falconer in Sisters), but this one just left me cold.
Grade: D+
Book Type: Series Romance
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 08/08/98
Publication Date: 1998/08
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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.