PAINT IT BLACK
By P.J. Parrish
Pinnacle Books
Kensington Publishing Corp.
416 pages
$6.99
Mystery
Jan, 2002
Setting - Sereno Key, Florida, 1986

A stalled car is a beacon in the night for a killer who extinguishes a life and simply drives away. His inner rage quieted…for awhile.

In P.J. Parrish's third mystery/thriller we are reunited with Louis Kincaid, a former detective from Detroit and Loon Lake, Michigan. Parrish wastes little time introducing us to the disturbing profile of killer and his warped capabilities. An early scene leads to gruesome details of a murderer on a mission. No sooner does the knife fall to the blood-covered ground is Louis lured to Sereno Key, Florida by his former boss, Sam Dodie, to investigate Walter Tatum's murder. His wife, Roberta, is the prime suspect and its her lawyer, Scott Bledsoe, who hired him for the $100 a day investigation. Early on, Louis learns that Roberta has a communication problem and can be very difficult to work with. But does that mean she killed her husband? Let's see, there's police records noting frequent domestic quarrels. Five times the police had to intervene and what about the $100,000 life insurance policy Walter had? But is that concrete evidence for motive?

First call of duty requires Louis to speak with the Chief of Police, Dan Wainwright. He is immediately informed that he needs a PI license to operate in the state, but the chief shows him the file anyway and escorts him to the crime scene. In two weeks, there are now two men stabbed. What did they have in common? They were black in a town that claimed "that murder doesn't happen here." Well, they were dead wrong. First Tatum was killed and then Anthony Rink, a 45-year-old computer software salesman from Toledo, OH. Rink was in town for a convention when he was shot in the leg, repeatedly stabbed and beaten. Fishermen found his body in an isolated swamp-like area. The time for denial is over gentlemen.

The race to stop the killer quickly becomes a competition between Wainwright and Sergeant Driggs, who represents Lee County Sheriff Mobley. Louis is only interested in stopping these brutal crimes and proving Roberta's innocence. Then the media learns of Tatum and Rink's horrid deaths and the crimes are labeled "Racially Motivated." The pressure is on to solve the madness.

Can the coroner's report link the weapons with the killer? Why such brutal rage? Could it be a personal message the killer is obsessed in enacting? Is the only lead Van Slate, who nearly beat a black man to death for having a white girl friend? Read PAINT IT BLACK to find out.

Parrish will guide you behind the "yellow caution tape" and into a dimensional character's thoughts and life. For not only is the killer on a mission, Louis is as well. He has to find his place and some peace in this crazy world of ours. Strong imagery is a plus in this mystery. It will hit you head on.

4 out of 5 badges
--Denise Fleischer, GWN Book Reviewer
5/18/2002

LISTEN TO THE SILENCE
Marcia Muller
Warner Books
www.twbookmark.com
Mystery
June 2001
IBSN: 0-446-60975-7
342 pages
$6.99 US
Setting California

After her divorced father's death, Sharon McCone finds he has named her in his will, as the person to dispose of his effects. As Sharon searches through papers in her father's house she discovers her own adoption records. When confronted about the adoption, her mother tells Sharon the situation is too complicated to explain. No amount of pressure will encourage her mother to tell why she kept the adoption a secret. Armed with nothing but the memory of a part Indian aunt, Fenella, who visited an Indian reservation around the time of Sharon's birth, Sharon starts on an odyssey through Montana, Idaho, Nevada and most of California in search of her birth parents.

A visit with an aunt and uncle in Jackson, California sends Sharon to a Flathead Reservation outside Missoula, Montana. There she meets Elwood Farmer, an enigmatic Indian with non-conventional methods of getting acquainted. Elwood provides her with names of several people who knew Fenella. While they remember Fenella, they stop short of filling in the details which leaves Sharon to "Listen to the Silence" between their words. The mystery deepens and Sharon despairs of ever learning of her true identity until Elwood gives her an all-important photograph of the woman, Saskia, he hints may be her mother. 

Sharon's research leads her to believe a land developer from Monterey, California, Austin DeCarlo, is her birth father. When confronted, Austin accepts Sharon as his daughter. His father, Joseph DeCarlo, however, refuses to acknowledge Sharon's existence. The younger DeCarlo has a large area of land in Modoc County he wishes to use as an upscale resort. Saskia attended law school and is defending the Indians against the DeCarlo to stop the resort. Before Sharon can meet Saskia in Bosie, Idaho, Saskia is run down and almost killed. While Sharon waits for word on Saskia's condition, a shadowy intruder fires at her. She soon discovers that danger lurks around every corner turning a simple quest for family into a dark and dangerous game.

After running out of leads and unable to talk with Saskia, Sharon and her boyfriend, Hy, head for Sage Rock, California to see the disputed land. Austin has indicated to Sharon that Jimmy D Bearpaw, owner of The Cattleman's Cafe in Sage Rock, is deeply involved in both sides of the lawsuit. What mystery surrounds Sharon's adoption? Why are people shooting at her? What evil thing happened on the Indian reservation? The unexpected and exciting conclusion comes together in the burned out ghost town of Cinder Cone. 

LISTEN TO THE SILENCE takes the reader into the unfamiliar world of the modern Indian. This is basically a story of the rich and powerful against the poor and downtrodden. This is Marcia Muller's twenty-first novel about the plucky and intelligent female detective, Sharon McCone. In this story the mystery is much closer to her than most. I enjoyed being taken into the world of twenty-first century Indians. The history was informative and accurate. Anyone interested in a good read should find "Listen to the Silence" worth their time.

----Doris Pannell, GW Online book reviewer
5.9/2002

The Gingerbread Man
by Maggie Shayne
Jove
Oct. 2, 2001
336 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0-515-13167-9

Life for the Pragues had been a series of PTA meetings, 9-5 jobs, little league games, just like every other American family until the day Bobby and Kara didn't come home. That's when their nightmare began.

Three weeks assigned to this difficult case was hell for Detective Vince O'Mally. It wasn't the stack of file folders that haunted him. It was the weekly visits of Sara Prague and her way of reminding him that these were her children missing, not impersonal files, case numbers or just another investigation. Vince knows he shouldn't promise anything, but he gives his word that he will find them. And he does. In an abandoned house on Syracuse's east side, Vince and his partner, Jerry, investigate a phoned in tip. In a broken floor board Vince finds the first vital clue to the case, the children's book "The Gingerbread Man" and a few minutes later they are struck with the horror of finding the dead children. Forever etched into their minds are the death masks of Kara and Bobby.

Removing Vince from the case doesn't end his need to see justice served. The Feds have taken over the case having found similarities with those in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Unable to walk away without solving the case, Vince takes an assigned leave of absence and heads out to Dilmun, New York. That's where the library book was taken out and logically that's where he'll find the killer.

Instinct leads him to the Dilmun Police Department where he feels obligated in informing the police chief that he's in town. He doesn't tell Chief Mallory that he's digging deeper into the investigation without official permission. A second quivering of instinct surfaces when Chief Mallory informs Holly Newman, the DPD receptionist/assistant that he's in town to find the person responsible for the overdue Gingerbread Man book. Her response was immediate shock. There was a connection there and Vince knew it. Both are a little closer now to the truth. Will the book lead the detective from Syracuse to finding the gravesite of her baby sister, Ivy? It will open the door to her own nightmare of a past, for Holly holds soul-deep guilt in her sister's kidnapping.

Out of control now, her obsessive responses return as Holly works with Vince in finding leads. She reveals her reason for being more personally involved. Through a series of events and closer examination of a horror movie star, his "so called" niece, information from the town doctor and a visit with the man believed responsible for Ivy's death, they put themselves in danger.

THE GINGERBREAD MAN deals with the haunting, disturbing, and frustrating reality of child abduction. It demands the reader see the child behind the name and picture. That those living this nightmare stop ignoring the signs of child abuse in their own homes or homes of someone they love or know. And that we continue investigating these cases until we can remove the responsible criminals off our streets. This may be a fictional tale, but it lives and breathes with horror, pain, regret, terrible loss, guilt and fear. And it reminds us that sometimes what we feel might be the "right thing to do" isn't right at all.

This is a book that needed to be written and I thank Maggie Shayne for having the guts to write it.
Denise Fleischer, Gotta Write Online
Netera@aol.com
9/28/2001

Death's Domain
by Alex Matthews
Intrigue Press
October, 2001
290 pages
ISBN 1-890-768-37-5
$23.95
Mystery

Psychotherapist Cassidy McCabe was contently living her life with her second husband, reporter Zach Moran, and their calico, Starshine, while balancing her professional practice. She gets a shocking wake-up call on Nov. 4 in the form of her obituary in the morning edition of her Oak Park newspaper. Determined to learn who staged this cruel stunt, Cassidy and Zach question Zach's editor in an effort to find out who is responsible for the error.

The date and the wording of the obituary trigger a clue in Cassidy's memory. She is forced to recall a heartbreaking moment of betrayal between her first husband, Kevin and her best friend, Barbara Segel. Cassidy caught the two sharing more than a blanket and in anger told Barbara to get the hell out of her home. Barbara was drunk and on the edge of emotional imbalance when her car crashed into an embankment. One life is extinguished but not forgotten for shortly after the mysterious obit there is further questionable documents. These are in the form of anonymous e-cards. The first one has Barbara's face jumping out of the background. The message focuses on two powers: the creative force of love and the destructive force of the memory of love. And if that doesn't intentionally inspire fear in Cassidy and Zach, the background changing to deep red and a black cross and its clues will. Instinctively, Cassidy sees the threat directed toward Zach. Logically, the e-card sender experiences severe pain having lost Barbara. Cassidy is the cause of this pain, therefore the sender's revenge could be gained by taking away the man she loves.

Cassidy has no other choice but to tell Zach what happened on one particular Nov. 4. The untraceable electronic threat isn't a criminal act so Cassidy and Zach aren't ready to involve the local police. They continue their own little investigation, by moving beyond the obit and the first e-card examining those that follow. If the individual responsible is looking for a "pay off" he/she isn't going to get it from them.

But what set him/her off years after the fatal event? Was some external constraint lifted allowing access into Cassidy's life? Did a major trigger push the person off the edge? Are they dealing with a technowizard, someone with access to their email? What if they're looking at it all wrong? What if it's one of Cassidy's patients? Or Barbara's surviving family members: Mrs. Segel, Lainy or Peter? Only time will tell if their hunches will save Zach's life. With the help of Barbara's former college roomate some information is revealed, but is it the right information?

DEATH'S DOMAIN is the sixth book in the Cassidy McCabe series. The author cleverly leads you through appropriate clues and those that misdirect you. Even the beginning mystery reader will ease comfortably into the lives of these very real characters, sense their frustration, fears and eagerly hope to reveal clues leading to the culprit. DEATH'S DOMAIN is a book you just can't put down and you can't wait to read the next one, which is currently in the "rough draft" stage.

The only negative is that the role of the police in uncovering the culprit is little more than writing up reports. And the majority of the time, Cassidy and Zach underestimate the severity of the threat and take matters into their own hands. It not only puts them in grave danger, but also makes them prime suspects.

Anyone interested in starting at the beginning of the series, which introduces the 37-year-old Oak Park, IL psychotherapist, can seek out these titles: SECRET'S SHADOW, SATAN'S SILENCE, VENDETTA'S VICTIM, WANTON'S WEB and CAT'S CLAW. Going by S.G. Pickett's new rating system, I give DEATH'S DOMAIN 4 out of 5 cloaks.

Denise Fleischer, Gotta Write Online
Netera@aol.com
10/13/2001

Have No Mercy
by Bobby Ruble
American Book Publishing
www.american-book.com
Release date: Sept. 2001
Author website: www.bobbyrule.com
ISBN: 1-930586-08-6
Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Detective
371 pages
$18.00
Sometimes you can't bury your anger.

For David Epstein of Mt. Pride, CO, the only child of middle-aged parents, life was fairly normal. As normal as it could be with a father haunted by a war he managed to survive. His parents were in love and loved him. An avid reader throughout his childhood, David buried himself in his books because he had no friends. Until one day Todd Reams moves next door through a foster care arrangement. Todd instinctively is a con man so he knows how to work things out in order to take advantage of people. David's parents are thrilled that David's finally found a friend and soon they treat Todd as if he was their son. At 13-years-old David realizes his life's goal. He feels compelled to understand what makes people tick. Unknown to him, is that Todd has plans of his own. He encourages David's parents to move to Israel, which they did.

In order to manage the household expenses, David years later asks Todd to be his roommate. While waiting tables at a local restaurant, Todd runs into Lance, an old friend from school. Lance works for a classic car dealer at High Cliff Sales. According to Lance, the High Cliffs area will become a good investment down the line. It will be purchased and developed by the rich. Todd sets his goal: he's going to own a big house up there by one of the mountains. Todd moves in with David, but is forced to move out when caught stealing one of David's mother's pendants. So begins a lifetime of hatred and distrust.

Time passes and David eventually establishes himself in his own, lucrative practice, mixing psychiatry and hypnosis to help his patients. Having made a number of good investments, he is ready to find a wife. He meets Ann at a weekend convention for psychiatrists and not even caring if he is indeed in love, dates her for a time and then proposes. A prenuptial agreement is signed and a $600,000 home is built in High Cliff Estates. Once they're married, he tells Ann to quit her job and to serve only his needs. Her frustration leads to drinking and other addictions. Tired of being an invisible partner in David's life, Ann moves out of David's bedroom and into her own. She hasn't found love in another man, but a decent temporary sexual relationship with their architect is fine with her until she can find someone else.

Todd latches onto a new person who can financially support his dreams. Renalda Davies, a wealthy young woman, might be his lucky ticket to opening a line of coffeehouses. After two months of dating Rennie he proposes. He has changed his name to Matthew Lain and has sharpened his con game. After three years of marriage, Rennie's invested in five Cully's Coffee Cup's in Colorado and two in four other states. Because Matt is ignoring the fact that he has a wife, Rennie is depressed, overeating and drinking. Unable to beat the depression, she seeks medial assistance in the form of one Dr. Epstein. After several hypnotic sessions to stop her overeating, her confidence rises, she buys that 1954 Jaguar from High Cliff Sales and she's on the way to recovery with every pound she loses.

Danger doesn't surface until Ann begins working for Matt and they have an affair. The lovers devise the perfect plot to rid themselves of Rennie. With her out of the way, they can continue to live the life of luxury. But even the best made plans can be ruined and it's up to Detective Joe Warner and his partner Detective Eddy Konklin to figure out who is the guilty party.

HAVE NO MERCY focuses on the evolution of greed in both David and Matt. Each believes he can achieve his goals, destroy the people they despise and then simply start all over again. They're dead wrong. All the elements of this mystery thriller are laid out before you. There is no questioning who the guilty party is. It's the ignorance of these intelligent men that drive you to read on. Will they get away with the crime and the money? Read the book and find out.

Three out of five
Denise Fleischer, GWN Online book reviewer
Netera@aol.com
1/4/2001

Strawberry Shortcake Murder
By Joanne Fluke 
A Hannah Swensen Mystery
Kensington
ISBN 1-57566-721-5
US $6.50
www.Kensingtonbooks.com
316 pages
Setting: Minnesota

This second Hannah Swensen mystery takes us behind the scenes at the first Hartland Fair bake-off. With her assistant Lisa Herman managing her tempting creations back at The Cookie Jar, Hannah can focus on her responsibilities as the senior judge on a panel of five. If this first televised bake-off can become an annual event, it would bring an influx of customers to Lake Eden. It would fill the rooms of Sally and Dick Laughlin's Lake Eden Inn and give the small town's TV station a little extra attention.

Early on, a shadow hovers above Lake Eden when there's a murder to be solved. Rather then wait for Bill Todd, her brother-in-law and his supervisor, Mike Kingston, to string together the clues, the amateur sleuth gets down to business learning who really killed Coach Boyd Watson, one of the judges. The prime suspect is Boyd's wife, Danielle who was home at the time that his skull was crushed, but claims only to have found his body lying in the garage. Domestic quarrels and beatings surface and could be the motive for the crime. Because Sheriff Grant wants to get done with the routine investigation in order to wrap up the case, Hannah has to move quickly to prove Danielle isn't the killer. Hannah might not be a professional, but she and her sister, Andrea, are on the right track checking the alibis of the contestants, trying to figure out if the murder is premeditated, conducting second interviews and digging up finger-pointing buried clues. 

This small town who-done-it has a down to earth cast of characters whose hatred for Boyd could have led to his demise. Was it the woman who called Boyd just before he died? Was it a guest at the Laughlin's inn? Could it be one of Norman Rhode's patients or the dentist himself, the boutique owner or the newspaper reporter trying to hook onto the story of her lifetime? 

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE MURDER whips up a clever little batter of intrigue and throws in a few special ingredients: actual recipes. Culinary mystery lovers will be addicted to Fluke's characters and her maze-like plots. The story line delivers, characters are dimensional, the language easy to follow and you'll be baking in no time. Other titles by this talented author include THE CHOCOLATE CHIP MURDER and BLUEBERRY MUFFIN MURDER, which I'll review in the near future. Log onto her web site at www.murdershebaked.com for recipes similar to her Strawberry Shortcake Swensen, Apricot Bread Pudding, Molasses Crackles and Cocoa Snaps. Tell Moishe, her adorable feline companion, that GW Online sent you.

Rating: 4 out of 5 baking sheets
--Denise Fleischer, GW Online Book Reviewer
Netera@aol.com
6/2/2002

Fatal
By Michael Palmer
Bantam Mystery
May 2002
ISBN: 0-553-80203-8
387 pages
$24.95 US
Setting: Belinda, West Virginia


    Dr. Matthew Rutledge is determined to find a way to force the local coal company, Belinda Cola and Coke to make changes in its business practices.  Twice bereaved through the company's actions, he wants the company to mend its ways before someone else gets hurt.  He is called to the hospital one night when another accident happens, this time caused by one of the miners going berserk and running his machine into the support pillars.  When Rutledge tends the miner's injuries,  he discovers strange, fibrous lumps all over the man's face.  This is not the first time he's seen these lumps, and not the first time the person possessing them has gone inexplicably insane.  Convinced that it has to be toxic waste in the ground water, he continues his crusade, despite threats from fellow doctors and mine owners.  

    Pathologist and assistant medical examiner Nikki Solari is completely unaware of Belinda, West Virginia, until her best friend also begins growing fibrous lumps and exhibiting the strange, vicious mood swings that seem to accompany them.  Tragedy will force Solari to go to Belinda, and a twist of fate will force her to stay, helping Rutledge in his quest for answers.  

    The final main character is Ellen Kroft, a devoted grandmother and member of an organization that desires more control and research over immunization shots.  Her own grandchild was sweet and  promising until a bad reaction to a vaccine damaged her.  Ellen is the token consumer member of a board deciding whether to launch Ominivax - a shot that will instantly immunize the patient against a huge list of diseases.  When it's time to vote, a thug visits her and threatens Ellen's granddaughter, should she vote against it.  She becomes determined to get to the root of the matter, and her trail will lead her to Belinda as well.  Each character will prove invaluable to solving the mystery, and the answer will be something that none of them predicted.

    For me, there is something terribly frightening about anything medical related.  One of the main themes - the lack of real, long term research for vaccines - is something that bothered me as much as it intrigued me.  The thought that any person can be irrevocably and horribly damaged from a reaction to one of these shots is probably far more frightening than anything Palmer could have made up.  The fact that the author was, himself, a doctor adds a lot to this story.  He manages to describe the medical procedures in such a way as to keep my understanding along with my interest.  I liked the characters, especially the Slocumb brothers, a trio of mountain men who have a wonderful sense of humor, as well as several surprises for the unwary who would disturb their peace or hurt their friends.  The book was a very quick read, and will interest anyone who enjoys medical thrillers.  Palmer answers all the questions posed by the mystery satisfactorily - but the medical ones he poses, sadly, are not quite so easy.

Four Cloaks out of Five
--Cindy Lynn Speer, GWN Online book reviewer 
elaine_of_shallot@hotmail.com
5/30/2002

In His Shadow 
by Dave Zeltserman
Mystery and Suspense Press, 2002
www.iuniverse.com
Thriller/Suspense
Paperback 254 pages
ISBN: 0-595-21084-8 $16.95
Setting: Denver Colorado


Johnny Lane is a successful private eye, so successful he has to farm out overflow cases to a coterie of freelance operatives. He's also a successful writer with a column called "The Fast Lane" running in "The Denver Examiner." The column has made him a public figure. People admire him, stop him on the street just to shake his hand. He seems to have everything going his way.

Then Johnny develops woman trouble. Women find Johnny appealing, and they always come with a generous helping of problems: the teenage runaway who prefers working in sex shows to living in a middle-class home where sexual predators aren't always on the other side of the glass. There's the aging beauty queen, with a taste for bedroom endurance contests, who gives up everything for Johnny and won't let him forget it. And then there's Mary, a sweet young college kid who trusts Johnny to track down her birth parents. It seems a simple enough case if only Johnny can keep his mind on it and not on his client. But it isn't long before even Johnny Lane suspects she may have chosen the wrong man for the job.

The body count begins to pile up as tough, two-fisted Lane makes his way down the mean streets of Denver and back into his own past. It's a journey that will challenge his most basic sense of self and put him on the wrong side of the law. Not Sam Spade, not Philip Marlowe, not even Mike Hammer can match Johnny Lane's taste for virtuostic violence. But it is Lane's vulnerability, rather than his capacity for mayhem that makes him interesting.

Nearly a century after the first hardboiled dick shouldered his way through the first splintered door there would seem to be very few changes left to be rung in the genre, but with In His Shadow Dave Zeltserman has done it. Zeltserman's book overwhelms and overflows genre conventions. The standard hardboiled detective becomes a kind of moral knight making a journey through a corrupt universe, a pilgrimage with both physical and ethical elements. There is a feel of rightness to what he does, even when he acts in ways that contradict moral conventions. Through this book, Zeltserman gives us a taste of what could happen if that idea were turned on its head.

Zeltserman is after something rather new here. Typical hardboiled readers may, therefore, not find In His Shadow an entirely satisfying read. Nor is it a book that will appeal, generally, to women readers - without exception, all of the female characters are heavily drawn from type. Only one truly developed character appears in this book, the narrator Johnny Lane. All the others are stick figures, extras straight from hardboiled central casting. But the dissection of Lane is astonishingly complete.

The risk is that some readers, sensing a conventional yarn, may abandon the book before they get a sense of where the author is taking them, before they understand that they have truly tumbled down the rabbit hole. Once the pace of revelation picks up, it becomes breakneck, overwhelming in fact. We want to follow Johnny Lane to Hell, and we do.

In His Shadow is not flawless, the reader finds himself blindsided by events that seem to come out of the blue. The violence is disturbing, not only because there is a lot of it, but because nothing in this skewed universe quite seems to compensate us for the rough ride we are given.

There are also a number of credibility issues. Some characters act in ways that don't seem to make sense. Even the basic premise that people would flock to a detective who might very well publish an account of his investigation into their personal affairs seems hard to swallow. The author, however, insists that this was based on a real-life prototype.

If you're looking for a fast-paced read that challenges some of the basic assumptions of the hardboiled genre, Dave Zeltserman's debut novel has a lot to recommend it. It's an interesting book, though one that is difficult to love. 

Reviewed by

Bill Stephens
GWN Book Reviewer
bill_stephensca@yahoo.ca

Three out of five bullets
June 4, 2002

Veiled Threats
A Carnegie Kincaid Mystery
By Deborah Donnelly
A Dell Mystery
January, 2002
ISBN 0-440-23703-0
U.S. $5.99

Carnegie Kincaid's dream of being a successful businesswoman is within grasp when she agrees to plan the wedding of a prominent Seattle family. But before Nickie Parry can stand at the altar, she has to fulfill her role as a bridesmaid. Fate acts as the uninvited guest, putting a snag in Carnegie's perfect arrangements at the Victorian mansion-for-rent. Dealing with a sneezing bridesmaid, a torn wedding gown, the presence of a homeless woman and a missing waiter set off a chain of events which ends in tragedy. One of the bridesmaids storms out of the mansion after a heated argument with her boyfriend. The first available means of escape is Nickie's Mustang, which ends up hitting a brick wall and instantly killing the young driver. The only spark of hope in Diane's affair is Carnegie learning that the man she thought was a waiter is actually the Parrys' lawyer, Holt Walter.

Complicating matters is the possibility that the  accident was a premeditated threat aimed at Nickie's father. Douglas Parry is caught in a legal battle claiming he was involved in securities fraud. King County Savings CEO, Keith Guthridge, attempted to re-direct the blame when KCS went into receivership. Nickie is in the middle of this madness. She loves her father, but is torn between her respect for Guthridge, who is her godfather.

After the sad turn of events at Diane's wedding, Carnegie works overtime juggling her responsibilities with both Nickie's approaching wedding and the Parry's fundraiser for a Senator. A reporter named Aaron Gold digs for information about the Guthridge and Parry legal battle right in the Parry's own kitchen. And things just steam up from there. Two hours after Gold tells Carnegie that Guthridge is a dangerous man, she is attacked in the woods on the Parry's estate. She knew their story of her walking into a tree hadn't a touch of truth to it. Was it Theo, the chauffeur who hit her over the head? Could Crazy Mary's story about seeing a man doing something terrible, before Diane's wedding, have anything to do with Michelle's death? Who destroyed the garden and killed Gus, the Parry's dog? Who has been on her houseboat and is trying to destroy her reputation? Carnegie's list of questions just keeps growing. Soon she becomes a target because of her and her friend's investiga! tion into the identity of the guilty party. She's even considered the prime suspect in a crime she would never commit.

VEILED THREATS is a first-person novel that you'll love. Donnelly introduces you to the stressful job of a wedding planner and the tainted element of covering up one's failures and betrayal. The characters have real problems and goals that aren't difficult to understand. There's enough mystery to keep you turning the pages and enough emotion to make it realistic. I would have preferred seeing a few characters' roles more involved, such as those of Theo's, Holt's and Nickie's stepmother, Grace. Say a prayer for Gus and keep an eye on the mystery bookshelves for "Died to Match," which Dell has slated for September 2002 publication.

4 pearl necklaces out of five
--Denise Fleischer, GWN Book Reviewer
6/23/2002