HIGH TIDE

The latest from megaseller Deveraux (Rembrance, 1994) hits on a cleanly written meet-cute opening sure to hook her readers for the distance. Six-foot-tall doll-designer Fiona, whose Kimberly is the biggest seller since Barbie, meets ruggedly handsome Florida swamp guide Ace in the baggage claim area of the Fort Lauderdale airport, where Ace has his arm lodged up the mouth of an expensive animatronic alligator he’s just picked up and wants to test. Thinking she’s seeing a man being eaten alive by a wiggling alligator, Fiona creams the big lizard with a bowling ball, blowing it into costly pieces. After a night in jail, she goes off into the swamp with Ace but then finds herself involved in a murder. Dashing about undercover in the Everglades, Ace must clear up Kimberley’s apparent guilt and catch the real killer. Of course, our heroine falls for Ace’s swamp patter after some sex-tease scenes sketched with Deveraux’s usual hard-breathing expertise. Should float to the top like a bar of soap in a hot tub.