Add a pinch of Psycho to a generous helping of General Hospital, and you've got the idea.
A psychopath confides his obsessions to a terrified priest, whose beloved sister is the star of the killer's homicidal fantasies: Garwood's first foray into contemporary romantic suspense.
Father Tom Madden and younger sib Laurant are close, even though the untimely death of their parents meant a childhood spent thousands of miles apart. The lovely Laurant grew up in a posh Swiss boarding school run by kindly nuns, while Tom was raised by the equally kindly Buchanan family in heartland America. Nick Buchanan, like a brother to Tom then, is now a special agent for the FBI. Tom turns to Nick to help track down the mysterious killer who calls himself Heartbreaker, but Laurant wishes he hadn't. Her immediate reaction to the "incredibly sexy" FBI agent is anything but sisterly, though his protectiveness and take-charge attitude trouble her. When Laurant realizes, however, that the stalker is getting closer every day, she stops arguing with Nick and falls in love. For the most part, Garwood avoids the grittiness of a procedural thriller and only hints at gory doings, concentrating instead on psychological suspense and Heartbreaker's increasing derangement as her somewhat formulaic story moves rapidly to a shattering climax. Straightforward style and brisk pacing zip readers past minor implausibilities, aided by a host of familiar small-town types, including a batty neighbor and a crooked sheriff. Readers of the author's historical romances (For the Roses, 1995, etc.) will be on familiar territory here despite the modern-day setting, and the frank sensuality of the love scenes is sure to please. A quickie denouement resolves the soapy subplots—Laurant's legal wrangle over a family trust, Nick's fear of flying (hey, tough guys can tremble), Father Tom's battle with cancer—and naturally love triumphs.
Add a pinch of Psycho to a generous helping of General Hospital, and you've got the idea.Pub Date: July 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-671-03299-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Roberts does it again with this fast-paced romantic mystery that's both steamy and thrilling, despite its somewhat obvious...
Beautiful Italian babe with a passion for fire and doomed hunks joins the arson squad and discovers that someone has held a torch for her since she was a child.
When Reena Hale is 11 years old, she watches her family's Baltimore pizzeria go up in flames. Thanks to a local arson detective, John Minger, and the girl's keen memory, police determine that a neighborhood crook whose young son had recently attacked Reena was out for revenge, and soon cops publicly haul the dirt bag off to jail. The large and loving Hale family bands together and rebuilds; Reena grows up curious about the origins of fire. She attends college and, after her boyfriend dies in an accident, joins the police force and learns the inner workings of the fire department. Eventually, she teams with Minger to solve the city's suspicious fires. Meanwhile, over the years, a shady character has been hiding in the shadows, waiting for the right moment to violently sabotage Reena's relationships (usually with the help of explosives). Somehow Reena doesn't put together that all of her boyfriends have been in the path of catastrophic (occasionally deadly) events, so her stalker hits the phone lines to clue her in with dirty messages that become more and more intimate. When Reena launches a torrid love affair with her new neighbor, whose truck soon explodes, she begins to get it. Fearing for her family's safety, Reena reopens past cases and learns that her troubles started when she was a child. The tale builds to a breathless climax as she (literally) races to beat out the flames of one fire before determining where the next one will be set.
Roberts does it again with this fast-paced romantic mystery that's both steamy and thrilling, despite its somewhat obvious nature.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2005
ISBN: 0-399-15306-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2005
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
