Kudos for quirkiness, though the novel is neither quite as funny nor as mysterious as it would like to be.
Davidson, bestselling author of the Undead series, has spun supernatural romances around vampires, mermaids and werewolves. Now she’s trying her hand at love in the loony bin.
The author has created a fantasy world posing as reality, beginning with a little-known branch of the FBI, the Bureau of False Flag Ops, or BOFFO, that distinguishes itself by employing agents who are all dangerously disturbed. There’s a kleptomaniac, an arsonist, an agoraphobic secretary, a sociopath and our heroine Cadence, who has multiple personality disorder. Cadence (blonde and perky) and her two “sisters” (Shiro, a brilliant Japanese fighter, and redheaded Adrienne, a sexed-up killer) form the perfect crime-fighting package. The three will need all their skills to capture the ThreeFer serial killer who is now working on Cadence’s home turf of Minneapolis. Bodies are piling up, three at a time, and Cadence and her partner George are far from solving a crime spree that has offered little in terms of forensic evidence and even less in profiling. Then ThreeFer strikes again, with a gift-like offering of clues that Shiro immediately understands—ThreeFer is killing to get Cadence’s attention. Meanwhile, romance is in the air as Cadence meets her best friend Cathie’s (she and Cathie met years ago at the mental institution where orphaned Cadence was born and raised) brother Patrick. A fabulously wealthy baker, Patrick knows all about Cadence’s multiple personality disorder and thinks it’s cool! Three chicks for the dinner price of one! Very strange…is he the ThreeFer killer? Or is it sociopath George? Maybe Cadence herself? Davidson’s murder mystery has a multiple personality of its own—chick-lit comedy, violent whodunit and some kind of contemporary retread of The Three Faces of Eve, the combination of which deflates the tension and calls into question the taste of its comedy.
Kudos for quirkiness, though the novel is neither quite as funny nor as mysterious as it would like to be.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-312-53117-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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