At last, latest In Death book is finally released


J.D. Robb's "Memory in Death ($24.95, G.P. Putnam's Sons), opens just a few days before Christmas in the year 2059. Lt. Eve Dallas and her partner, Detective Delia Peabody, of the New York City Police and Security Department catch the case of a sidewalk-splattered Santa who took out an innocent pedestrian before he hit finally hit pavement.

Just business as usual. It's after returning to Cop Central that Eve's world falls apart.

Eve survived a horrible childhood before rescuing herself and going into the system at age 8. But she also blocked out most of the memories from those days. So when she enters her office and finds a woman waiting for her, she doesn't know her at first. But it doesn't take long before she recognizes Trudy Lombard and remembers what a hellish foster mother she was. Eve kicks the woman, who claims she just came to the city to visit her dear Eve, out of her office.

But the encounter leaves her shaken, so shaken, in fact, that she doesn't realize Trudy will be going after her billionaire husband Roarke to shake him down with threats of revealing the details of Eve's childhood to the media.

By the time the dime drops, Trudy has already make her blackmail attempt and been thrown out of Roarke's office. Eve insists on seeing Trudy one last time to tell her off. But by the time she and Roarke go to see Trudy, the woman is dead. Murdered.

Luckily, Eve and Roarke have an airtight alibi for the time of Trudy's death. But still, Eve feels she must take the case and solve it to put Trudy and her childhood behind her one and for all.

Solving the case won't be easy, as Eve wasn't the only foster child the detestable Trudy mistreated.

"Memory in Death" is the 22nd winner in the In Death series. While "Memory" isn't as action packed -- I missed the usual kick-butt fight or three Eve usually has, but the trade off is that more of her tortured childhood is revealed.

I pity the fool who hasn't read any of J.D. Robb's (aka Nora Roberts) Eve Dallas series and urge you to rectify the situation immediately. As for those who are already fans, I know I don't have to tell you to get this book, you already have. Now, we can start waiting for the next In Death book to come out in another six months.

"Don't Look Down" is hard to look up from once you start reading

Samantha Jellicoe might seem like she has it all. In "Don't Look Down" by Suzanne Enoch ($6.99, Avon) she has an automatic in into West Palm Beach high society thanks to being the girlfriend of British billionaire Richard Addison, she's about to start her own security firm and she has her first client.

However, the former (highly successful) cat-burglar had to give up her former vocation, thanks to a promise she made to Rick ("Flirting With Danger," 2005). Her new business is becoming a major point of contention between her and her significant other -- he keeps wanting to give her the benefit of his vast experience while Samantha wants to do things on her own. Rick's ex-wife is back in town and she obviously wants him back. And, oh yeah, her first client plastics manufacturer Charles Kunz is murdered before Samantha can even start on the job.

Of course, Sam feels she owes it to her erstwhile client to find out who killed him and why.

In the meantime, Samantha has to keep her promise, sort of, to Rick to stop with the breaking and entering. Deal with the jealous ex-wife. And save her former fence and surrogate father, Walter "Stoney' Barstone, from going to the slammer for jewelry theft and the murder of Kunz.

He's being framed by the same person or persons unknown who did the deed. Sam just hope Rick will understand if she has to break a few rules to get to the truth.

Sam's walking a tightrope and she doesn't dare look down or she just might lose her balance and fall off.

If possible "Don't Look Down" is even better than the first Samantha Jellicoe novel, "Flirting With Danger." Enoch usually pens historicals, but she's done a fine job with the Jellicoe contemporary suspense books. I hope there's a third one in the offing.

"On the Run" doesn't disappoint


"On The Run" by Iris Johansen ($26, Bantam Books)

Grace Archer always knew her past would rear up to bite her in the backside one day. Living and working on a horse farm with her eight-year-old daughter, Frankie, Grace always knew she'd have to run one day.

Betrayed by the man she loved when a CIA operation went bad eight years ago, Grace knew the criminal kingpin they'd failed to stop would never forget what he perceived as their betrayal.

So Grace settled in the back-of-beyond Tallanville, Ala., working her magic with the horses (Frankie insists she's a horse whisperer) and raising her daughter to be a survivor.

Now, time has run out.

Marvot has finally found her and he's sent in his men to kidnap Grace -- he has use for her particular talents -- and to kill her daughter who Marvot is sure would distract Grace from accomplishing the job he has for her.

Narrowly escaping Marvot's first attempt to take her, Grace has no choice but to team up with Jake Kilmer -- her CIA trainer and the man she believes betrayed her eight years ago. She has a better chance of keeping Frankie safe with Kilmer's help. And Frankie is all that matters.

From Alabama to Colorado to Morocco, the chase is on.

"On the Run" is another stellar Johansen production. Don't hold your breath waiting for the suspense to abate or you'll probably pass out.

New year brings a great new suspense novel from a favorite author

In Jayne Ann Krentz's "All Night Long" ($24.95, G.P. Putnam's Sons), Irene Stenson returns to her hometown after a 17-year absence at the request of former best friend Pamela Webb.

Best friends for one long-ago summer, Irene's friendship with Pamela was an odd match. Pamela was the wild, spoiled daughter of the richest family in town, while shy, good-girl Irene was the daughter of the town police chief. The girls' friendship ended the same night Irene returns from an outing with Pamela to find her parents dead from an apparent murder-suicide.

Despite the rumors that her mother was having an affair, Irene never believed her father killed her mother, then himself. Fifteen years old at the time of her parents deaths, Irene left Dunsley and went to live with a great-aunt.

Her parents deaths left a mark on Irene but after a years of therapy, she's come up with ways to cope and is living her life as a reporter with a small-town newspaper. She never thought she'd return to Dunsley, but that was before she receives an e-mail from Pamela, who she hasn't heard from in the past 17 years. In the e-mail Pamela uses the code the two girls came up with that long ago summer to indicate when something was really important and had to be kept a total secret.

Irene wonders if Pamela has some information about her parents' deaths.

So, Irene returns to Dunsley and when Pamela doesn't contact her at the prearranged time, she goes looking for her best friend -- only to discover her body.

Pamela's senator father (who looking at a run for the White House) wants his daughter's death to make as small an impact as possible on his career aspirations. The authorities rule the death a suicide, but Irene's not buying. This is the third body she's discovered in the town of Dunsley.

It's just too much of a coincidence, so with the help of ex-Marine Luke Danner, Irene starts looking for answers -- for Pamela's death and for the deaths of her parents 17 years ago.

"All Night Long" is vintage Krentz: Witty repartee between a clever, likable heroine and the alpha-male hero, family issues and a tightly plotted storyline. The only bad thing about the book is that it had to end.

"Bloodstone" is a jewel of a mystery

In Gwen Hunter's "Bloodstone" ($6.99, Mira), jewelry designer Tyler St. Claire is having a bad day. First, her "family gift" fails her, as usual, so she gets no warning before she's mugged at a rock-and-gem show. Then her hotel room is broken into and when nothing of great value is taken, the local top cop decides she's a suspicious character and brings out the drug sniffing dog.

Of course, there's nothing to find so Tyler heads home. And that night, just when she's starts to relax, she gets a phone call from the St. Tyler family matriarch, Aunt Matilda, warning her there's a "blood-aura on the moon tonight" and a policeman will be at her door momentarily.

Sure enough, Tyler has barely hung up the phone before her doorbell rings. It's Special Agent Evan Bartlock and he has bad news. The cops have video of Tyler's brother, Davie, being attacked in an alley and dragged off by two men.

Tyler's brother, a millionaire/computer genuis/environmentalist, has been kidnapped and on Tyler's answering machine is a message telling her she has something that belongs to the kidnappers, they want it back or Davie will die.

The only problem is Tyler has no clue as to what they're talking about.

What she does have is gift that lets her "scan" in on Davie just long enough to feel his pain as his kidnappers torture him, but not long enough to tell her where he is. She has a niece, Jane, who has just hit puberty and is coming into her own "family gifts" and since Tyler was never trained in how to use her own psychic abilities, she has no clue as to how to help Jane. And, it seems, she has at least one other faction who is after Davie and they're perfectly will to go through Tyler to get her niece.

I now have another favorite author and the best thing is, "Bloodstone" isn't Hunter's first book, so I can read her earlier works. However, I hope this isn't the one and only St. Claire book. It would be great to read about a grown-up Jane because she seemed to be developing some awesome powers in "Bloodstone."