by Adam enjoys a lifestyle most men only dream of. Then one day he wakes up to find the morning headlines blaring, “Another victim falls prey to Mr. Romance. Who is next?” He suddenly realizes his way of life is not only frivolous, but deadly. Dubbed Mr. Romance by New York society for his romantic adventures, Adam Fernando Russo loves women. But lately he realizes how lonely it is coming home to an empty house. Can he settle for only one woman? After he makes a list of qualities worthy enough to merit giving up his desirable existence, suddenly recipients of his coveted attention mysteriously fall prey to a murderer.The murders seem unrelated with one exception–all the victims have recently returned from a fabulous weekend rendezvous with Mr. Romance. Adam’s assistant, Katie Sinclair, knows Adam is innocent with airtight alibis. The police are at a loss, so Adam and Katie work together to discover the link between the murders. As luck would have it, their plan to prove the murderer is copying classic Cary Grant movies goes astray just as Adam realizes his perfect woman has been by his side all along.
From a publisher that is often equated with over-the-top erotic fiction comes a very mainstream love story wrapped within a compelling murder mystery. For someone like me who loves romance fiction just about as much as mysteries, this is the best of both worlds. This is also the first novel by this author that I have read and I have to say that I am impressed!
On the other hand, I was not initially very impressed with Adam . . . what a self-absorbed dude that seemed to think that women were just willing to put their lives on hold in order to become the object of his desire, even for a night or a weekend. Perhaps that was true for many women in Adam’s circle. Katie was not one of them. In fact, arranging for Adam’s trysts was not the favorite part of her job and while she may not have made her opinions known to any great extent, she was royally tired of being a procurer for this spoiled man.
But as can often become true, and it certainly was true in Adam’s case, his free-wheeling, love-them-and-leave-them lifestyle began to come back to bite him in the butt. And it wasn’t doing much for the women who he was now setting up as candidates for the Perfect Wife. They were all turning up dead. Can’t have been fun for them. That Adam was the first suspect wasn’t good for him either, but fortunately he had an iron-clad alibi, even though here as in much mystery fiction, his alibi didn’t really remove him from the suspect list in the minds of some of those in law enforcement. Thanks to the creative thinking of Katie Sinclair, she and Adam together realize that all the murders are mimicing classic murders in Cary Grant movies. Finding clues that would identify the murderer wasn’t any easier but at least it was a start.
I really liked this novel!! It was fresh and well-written, its characters unique and a change from the often classic “beleagered heroine and the frumpy detective who saves the day” — sort of the Mike Hammer formula. Not so here. Getting to like Adam was a push for me, but I adored Katie who was a woman who really wasn’t hung up on herself, who wasn’t afraid to think her own thoughts and be creative in her processing this problem. The novel was long enough to allow the character and story development that gave the novel its dimension and made it such an enjoyable reading experience.
And I must comment that I found Ms Martinez’s writing style and her literary craftsmanship to be so very good and one which testifies that, like many who write the books we review here at The Book Binge, the joy of writing and the love of a sentence well-written is not dead, even in a country where linguistic education, IMHO, is not nearly as important as computer skills or science/math. (Don’t get me started.) I thought the narrative was proof-read to the extent that so many of the small grammatical errors that seem to crop up in hastily written novellas and novels just weren’t there. So much nicer to read a carefully prepared text. But most of all, I appreciated that the plot and story line moved along in a way that, while complicated, was not difficult to follow and which allowed the mind of the reader to become absorbed in the story instead of trying to keep all the characters straight. (I hate it when there are so many characters that it becomes really confusing.)
So I commend the publisher for giving us this very good read, and I hope that this novel will find its way into the libraries of many of you who love a good love story that has been melded to a compelling mystery.
I give this novel a rating of 4.75 out of 5.
You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place.
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