FATAL ERROR

Author: Colleen Thompson ISBN: 0843954213 11/2004 ROMANTIC SUSPENSE Publisher: Leisure

West Texas gossip paints every story a more interesting shade, especially when a married man goes missing with a small-town banker's wife and a fortune in fraudulent loans. Susan Maddox is tired of feeling like an abandoned woman, and even angrier when the neighbors act as if she's the one getting away with murder. Maybe her handsome -as-sin bad-boy brother-in-law isn't the smartest choice of an ally, especially since she's never been able to forget a star-studded night in his convertible back in high school. But who else can she trust to recover damning information from her husband's crashed hard drive? Who else is there to pick up the pieces when intruders set fire to her home, a truck runs her off the road, and a trail of dead men stops her cold? Who else can help her uncover...Fatal Error.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Please, oh please, keep those good romantic suspense books coming my way! I didn't realize I liked them so much until the last two I read, including this one, Colleen Thompson's FATAL ERROR.

Now I admit to knowing (or guessing) one of the messed up players involved in tormenting our poor heroine, Susan Maddox. After all, you can't always fool me with these whodunit books! Never would I have guessed everything! There is a lot of crazy and wild stuff happening in this book. Quite a few hidden surprises all written in fantastic detail, too.

Teacher extraordinare heroine (Susan) loses her virginity to the hero in high school she always loved (Luke), but due to some serious communication breakdown, marries his brother (Brian=loser) instead. Brian has an affair with the banker's wife (Hal and Jessica), who ends up pregnant, and they skip town leaving suspicion and a host of repercussions in their wake. I assure you, that is only the tip of the iceberg in this book. I just gave you zero to work with, believe it or not!

Well, as you can see, I love the story but I also love the writing. Colleen Thompson has Small Town, USA, down to a science. From election year politics to every town that has a bit of "Melrose Place" in it, descriptive details that may seem trivial to some run rampant through this book. I can smell that west Texas desert and see those old ladies with their unnatural shade of pink hair whenever I flip a page.

You can ask yourself if all the underlying twists are needed since you already have some juicy stuff to work with, but the answer at the end is a resounding YES!

Shannon Johnson