I'd never read a book by Linda Howard before (she's written such things as Cry No More, Dying to Please, Kill and Tell, and Mr. Perfect) until I decided to take a flier on her latest romantic thriller, To Die For. Why? I don't know. Sometimes, it seems, you need a little cotton candy for the mind.
Blair Mallory is a pretty, confident woman on the cusp of thirty. She's leading the good life while running her upscale fitness club and tooling around town in the red Mercedes convertible she got in the divorce from her cheating husband, Jason (Blair caught him kissing her then-seventeen year old sister Jenni, took a picture, and the rest, as they say, was history – Jason didn't want anything to interfere with his political aspirations, so he willingly paid through the nose for a sense of security – and the negatives). But then an obnoxious "copycat" who had developed a strange fixation on Blair (and who even insists on wearing her hair in the same way) is killed in the parking lot of Blair's "Great Bods" fitness center, and Blair witnesses the murder.
The resulting investigation puts Blair back in contact with Wyatt Bloodsworth, the former NFL player turned small-town cop who dumped her unceremoniously two years before. As romantic tensions flare between them and Blair is stalked by an unknown killer, Blair and Wyatt must locate the murderer before anyone else is hurt. But not too quickly, or there won't be sufficient opportunity for our two beautiful people to fall into bed with one another. Repeatedly. Because every time Wyatt touches Blair's neck, well, she can't take it. And he seems to locate her neck with greater frequency than he searches for any killer, but perhaps his assignment was some sort of protective custody, not investigation.
The book opened promisingly enough, with Howard writing it in the first person and Blair's story being recounted as if by some sort of blonde bimbo cheerleader variant of the hard-boiled detective. I actually wasn't quite sure what I was getting into: I thought it would be a bit of a thriller, and the opening suggested that (hey, there was a mention of a murder on page two). But by the time Blair called the cops to report the murder and ol' Wyatt showed up, the tale turned into an R-rated Harlequin romance: kind of like something you might see on late night cable, where a decent story is buried beneath lots of sex and babes in bikinis because – well, just because. Wyatt and Blair can't seem to keep their hands off each other, and Howard can't seem to stop writing about them not being able to keep their hands off each other (though it doesn't really come across as particularly erotic – on occasion, it seems rather clinical).
Article comments
1 - Eric Berlin
Nice job again Bill. All too often an interesting premise can breakdown into a sex or (even more often in films) chase or shoot-em-up fest. I think especially with your standard mystery/romance, an author has to work very hard to keep the story fresh.
This book review has been selected for Advance.net. You’ll be able to find this and other Blog Critics reviews at such places at Cleveland.com’s Book Reviews column.
2 - Laurie Hockema
My mother and I both laughed so hard reading this book that I had to let Ms. Howard know that we enjoyed it to it's fullest. Thank you, there is never enough laughter is this world.
3 - patriotboy
My wife loves mysteries. She'll read 2 or 3 a week sometimes--that's with an overload teaching schedule. Every few weeks, I like to freak her out by looking up a review for a book she's reading and make an offhand comment about it--that's what brought me here. For instance, just a few minutes ago, I stopped typing and said, "Do you think Wyatt will drop his detective gig and help Blair out at the Great Bod if they decide to marry?" Mrs. Patriotboy, as always, dropped her book, gave me a funny look, and then laughed like hell." I love that woman.
Yeah, it's stupid, but, hey, we like it.
4 - ckbeck
I love Linda Howard and was really looking forward to reading this until I turned to page 1 and found it to be in 1st person. I HATE 1st person. Hopefully, this is not a style Ms. Howard adopts for future writings.
5 - bruce wiltshire
This was the worst book ever. Not only did I dislike the SHALLOW character Blair Mallory, but the writing was Terrible. Only made it to page 20 befoer I could take it no more. I DO NOT recommend this book to anyone who can read.