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There's an advert on British TV at the moment for one of the big banks where customs in different countries give travellers plenty of scope for misunderstanding. I felt like I'd been drafted into that advert as an extra when I read Suzanne Brockmann's HOT TARGET. It's billed as a military romance/suspense, and I can't really argue with that, although it's heavier on the former than the latter. The main suspense -- and that's not exactly difficult to hide -- is not so much whether a maverick film producer will be murdered as to who will cop off with whom. My knowledge of the romance genre can be written on the back of a folded-over postage stamp. The last one I read (no names, no pack drill, but if you ever see a book by Judith Gould give it a wide berth) was unspeakable; before that I once read a Barbara Cartland novel (don't ask, long story). But I found HOT TARGET a diverting read, if not a book to stay in your mind that long. Its USP, if you can call it that, is setting a gay romance alongside the heterosexual one. And I have a suspicion I won't be the only reader to find the former a lot more convincing and compelling than the latter, which pretty much falls into routine romance territory -- girl meets boy, girl and boy argue, girl and boy fall in love. The same can't be said of the gay romance where FBI agent Jules Cassidy obviously has a talent for attracting unsuitable men. Scumbaggy former partner Adam appears on the scene and uses Jules to worm his way onto the film set. Meanwhile, actor Robin Chadwick who has both drink problems and an inability to deal with his own sex life, can't seem to decide if he wants to hop into bed with Jules, or run very fast in the other direction. It's Robin's sister Jane Mercedes Chadwick who's ostensibly at the heart of HOT TARGET. She's an ambitious movie producer who has extremist groups threatening to kill her for daring to focus on a gay World War II hero in her latest film. Security firm Troubleshooters Incorporated are called in to protect her -- and on-leave Navy SEAL Cosmo Richter soon crosses her path. HOT TARGET is apparently one of a series focussing on different members of the SEAL team. The action scenes are pretty much secondary to affairs of the heart, and in the end it's the highly professional but personally confused Jules who turns out to be by far the most interesting and believable character and the best reason to keep reading until the end.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, December 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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