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J A Jance does a pretty good line in inventively knocking off bad guys in prologues. Her previous Ali Reynolds novel had a bloke locked in the boot of his car, with the car placed in the way of a train. This outing has a thoroughly nasty fellow dragged along by a car in whose door his hand has been trapped. He's not even permitted to jog along at a steady pace, either. Hauled along at an ever increasing rate, he does eventually expire. Jance has no mercy on the female retiree whom she designates the finder. That lady loses the banana she has just consumed, and vows never to eat another. Still in her small Arizona town, Ali Reynolds enters the story as she tries to work on her blog-- cutlooseblog.com. She is forced to cease her work when the butler of the daughter of the woman who enabled her to gain a university education, knocks on her door and presents her with an invitation to tea. Ali had received a similar invitation twenty-five years previously, from the hands of that same butler, and that was the beginning of her successful career. At that time, the Ashcrofts were a wealthy family, comprising a mother and daughter; now, only the daughter remains. Nonetheless, Ali obeys the summons. A brief examination of the exterior of the house discloses that things are perhaps not going as well for Miss Ashcroft as they did when her mother was alive. Arabella tells Ali that she wishes to write a book, an incest memoir, one that might help young women. Arabella discloses that the son of her long dead stepbrother has approached her with a blackmail threat. If Arabella does not pay him, he will advertise that Arabella was institutionalised when she was a young woman, will have her declared incompetent and take out a reverse mortgage on her house, from which he will help himself to large amounts of cash. Arabella declines Billy's kind offer but confides in Ali that, when she was a child, Billy's father had sexually molested her. Policeman Dave Holman is a good friend of Ali's. He turns to her when his ex-wife informs him that their thirteen year-old daughter has run away from their home. Crystal is hitchhiking her way from Las Vegas to reach her father. Whilst on the run, she sees a group of men take the life of another, so she becomes a target, since she has seen their faces. There's an awful lot of paedophilia around the bookstalls recently. Of all crimes, I think that is the one most likely to evince a reaction of horror from readers. In combination with murder it produces an unbeatable allure, so readers are drawn to plots like these. Jance's characters are quite credible although I am beginning to wonder how plausible is Ali's devotion to her blog site. Still, I suppose I have every reason to know that lots of people interact with others and, in fact, can become close friends with strangers on the Net. Ali and her problems are certainly believable, although at times I wonder why Ali is so attractive to her friends. On the other hand, Ali's parents are very plausible, staunch and charming. On the whole, I found I rather enjoyed this book, despite its themes.
Reviewed by Denise Pickles, October 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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