Second-novelist Johansen (The Ugly Duckling, p. 249) clearly has a penchant for superwoman protagonists who emerge victorious in the face of all adversity. Kate Denby, a scientist, is pushing 30, and her marriage—to an old-fashioned (i.e., chauvinist) cop—is over, but she's got three things that make life worth living: her work, her son, and her mother-in-law, who lives with her and cares for nine-year-old Joshua when Kate's at the lab. In fact, Kate's all-consuming work at Genetech in Oklahoma was a large factor in her ex-husband's disillusionment with their relationship. But Kate doesn't really care: She's getting closer and closer to a medical breakthrough she's researching at Genetech on her own time. Then, when Kate starts getting aggressively courted by famous geneticist Noah Smith—who wants her to help him with the final states of RU2, the ``miracle drug'' he's close to completing—trouble breaks out. Noah's lab explodes (it's thought that he died in the blast). Then it appears that whoever ``got'' Noah is after Kate. Following a series of minor mishaps, her ex-husband's car explodes when Joshua was supposed to be in it, and that's the last straw. Noah, who isn't dead after all, convinces Kate to head for the hills— literally; once in hiding in West Virginia with Noah, Joshua, mother-in-law Phyllis, and Seth, Noah's darkly mysterious best friend/bodyguard, Kate and Noah are finally free to complete their research and plan for the release of RU2—which will, they think, eliminate all fatal illnesses in one big swoop. Unfortunately, however, Ishmaru, a hired assassin, is still on Kate's trail. There's a lot going on here, what with the futuristic medical breakthroughs, the determined assassin, the emergence of several late plot twists, and the romantic tension between Kate and all available males, but somehow it all works. Overall, then, a lively, engrossing ride by a strong new voice in the romantic suspense genre.
Pub Date: Feb. 10, 1997
ISBN: 0-553-09715-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1996
As for Columbus, it comes across much like other Midwestern cities in noir stories, which may be the point.
The latest stage in Akashic’s master plan to paint the world black is marked by 14 new stories whose most appealing features are their come-hither titles and the different shades of noir they invoke, from light gray to pitch black.
The hallmark here is competent but unspectacular professionalism that ticks all the boxes but originality. Sex fuels the plots of Robin Yocum’s “The Satin Fox,” in which a vice cop’s romance with a junkie stripper is threatened by blackmail; Kristen Lepionka’s “Gun People,” in which a wife takes up with one of the contractors upgrading the place her accountant husband has purchased; Craig McDonald’s “Curb Appeal,” which follows a woodworker’s romance with an interior decorator to its all-too-logical end; Mercedes King’s “An Agreeable Wife for a Suitable Husband,” whose ill-assorted title couple plot to rid themselves of each other; Julia Keller’s “All That Burns the Mind,” in which an Ohio State University English teacher finds a sadly predictable way of dealing with two problem students; and Khalid Moalim’s “Long Ears,” whose heroine learns a great deal about an ancient accident and a present-day murder but keeps mum. None of the entries excels editor Welsh-Huggins’ “Going Places,” in which a rising politician’s wife and fixer collude to shelter him from the consequences of his peccadilloes; the nearest competitors are Chris Bournea’s “My Name Is Not Susan” (a retired football player’s lover is suspected when he and his wife, the lover’s friend, are murdered), Tom Barlow’s “Honor Guard” (a chronically disappointing son negotiates frantically to keep his father out of prison after an argument with a stranger turns deadly), and Daniel Best’s “Take the Wheel” (a tawdry, fast-moving tale of a pair of frenemies whose partnership in a coffee shop is threatened by some lethally laced heroin). The newly arrived Chinese student in Nancy Zefris’ darkly comic “Foreign Study” manages to stumble through town without occasioning a single felony, and Laura Bickle’s “The Dead and the Quiet,” Lee Martin’s “The Luckiest Man Alive,” and Yolanda Tonette Sanders’ “The Valley” are notable for their closing intimations of grace, that rarest of qualities in noir.
As for Columbus, it comes across much like other Midwestern cities in noir stories, which may be the point.Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61775-765-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Akashic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Science and romance meet in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game.
A Regency lady with a hidden past joins forces with an irritable aristocrat to solve a dastardly series of crimes.
That waspish illustrator using the name A.J. Quill is really Lady Charlotte Sloan, cast off by her family for marrying her drawing master. She’s worked on several cases with the Earl of Wrexford (Murder at Half Moon Gate, 2018, etc.), but none has tested her skills or her heart as much as the one involving her cousin Cedric, Lord Chittenden, and his twin brother, Nicholas. The twins were Charlotte’s dearest childhood companions, and she’s devastated when Cedric is brutally murdered and Nicholas is arrested. The cousins were interested in scientific research, so Charlotte searches for clues among their peers. Hawk and Raven, two street urchins she’s raising as gentlemen, help her in other ways. And Wrexford bribes his way into the prison housing Nicholas, who drops hints about the Eos Society and Cedric’s rivalries over lovely Lady Julianna Aldrich, whose wealthy guardian encourages her intellectual interests. Although the theory that electricity can be used to raise the dead has largely been disproven, Cedric has continued to experiment with the voltaic pile. A particularly promising clue is the sighting of a person with a distinctive hat and cloak at recent crime scenes. Realizing that the killer is most likely a member of the upper crust, Charlotte makes the difficult decision to reveal herself as Lady Charlotte in order to meet more of her cousin’s friends. Her burgeoning awareness of her love for Wrexford is just one of many unpredictable complications in the search for a clever and ruthless killer.
Science and romance meet in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2281-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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