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Someday I’m going to learn not to ask for another book in a series that I’m already feeling lukewarm about. When I find the book a boring retread of same old, same old, is it the author’s fault or mine? THE FRIGHT OF THE IGUANA is very much like the previous four books in the pet-sitter series – heroine Kendra Ballantyne splits her working time between her pet-sitting career and her equally animal-based legal career, while spending her private time trying to figure out her love life. I can’t fault Johnston for shilly-shallying; we start right off with the mystery when Kendra arrives to take care of her four-footed clients – in this case, a dog and an iguana – only to find an empty house and a note warning her to pull a ransom together and not call the cops. She does call Tracy, the president of her pet-sitting club, who tells her that she’s the third of their members to suffer a pet-napping. Kendra does call the cops, but the police aren’t impressed, not even when she can present the other crimes as well. However, when Tracy’s next job takes her to a house containing both animals and the body of another club member, the police take things much more seriously. They also threaten to take Tracy into custody, so she begs Kendra to clear her. As a romantic side note, Kendra is torn between her long-time flame Jeff and the handsome veterinarian she met in the previous book. Jeff, who spent much of the last book pleading for Kendra’s patience while he dealt with his ex-wife, suddenly has none for her, telling Kendra that there is a very limited time that he’ll put up with her cold shoulder. Kendra isn’t sure that she likes that attitude or that she forgives him, but she ends up working closely with him in his capacity as a private eye. The characters have fallen out of my favor, but I have to be honest and say that that’s a personal reaction; someone else may love the sexual tension and banter between them. Unfortunately, that’s the only tension in the book, because the solution to both the mystery and romance plots is never in doubt. And that’s not just a case of my personal taste – the way Kendra talks about her two beaus makes her ultimate decision blatantly obvious, and any astute reader can peg the criminal and motive almost before the murder happens. And that, by any standards, is a gigantic set of flaws.
Reviewed by Linnea Dodson, October 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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