MURDER LIST

Author: Julie Garwood ISBN: 0345453832 3/2005 (PB) SUSPENSE Publisher: RANDOMHOUSE/Ballantine

When Chicago detective Alec Buchanan is offered a prime position with the FBI, it is the perfect opportunity to leave the Windy City and follow in his brothers’ footsteps to the top echelons of law enforcement. But first he must complete one last assignment (and one that he is not too happy about): acting as a glorified bodyguard to hotel heiress Regan Hamilton Madison. The gorgeous exec has become entangled in some potentially deadly business. Someone has e-mailed her a graphic crime-scene photo–and the victim is no stranger. Regan suspects that the trouble started when she agreed to help a journalist friend expose a shady self-help guru who preys on lonely, vulnerable women. In fact, the smooth-as-an-oil-slick Dr. Lawrence Shields may be responsible for the death of one of his devotees, which was ruled a suicide. Hoping to find some damning evidence, Regan attends a Shields seminar. At the gathering, the doctor persuades his guests to partake in an innocent little “cleansing” exercise. He asks them to make a list of the people who have hurt or deceived them over the years, posing the question: Would your world be a better place if these people ceased to exist? Treating the exercise as a game, Regan plays along. After ten minutes, Shields instructs the participants to bring their sheets of paper to the fireplace and throw them into the flames. But Regan misses this part of the program when she exits the room to take a call–and barely escapes a menacing individual in the parking lot. The experience is all but forgotten–until the first person on Regan’s list turns up dead. Shock turns to horror when other bodies from the list start to surface, as a harrowing tango of desire and death is set into motion. Now brutal murders seem to stalk her every move–and a growing attraction to Alec may compromise her safety, while stirring up tender emotions she thought she could no longer feel. Yet as the danger intensifies and a serial killer circles ever closer, Regan must discover who has turned her private revenge fantasies into grisly reality.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Before I launch into my praising, and slight nit-picking of Garwood's MURDER LIST, I must say that I am giddy at the fact I am the one to do this review! Julie Garwood is the reason I started reading romance. Without her books, I just don't think many people would have had their eyes open to the unique style that is romance. It doesn't matter if you like contemps and suspense, or historicals, she put so much fun, drama, sex, and great plots into her work, that my small minded world of believing romance could not mean great writing was forever changed.

Garwood doesn't disappoint me...well, by much. The hero, Alec, is just as sexy as all the other famed heroes she has written about. The heroine is just as cute and likeable, despite being perfect in every way. Their chemistry is instantaneous, and the Murder List that brings them together is something that makes the romance all the hotter. Nope, the only thing that isn't perfect is how long into the book it takes them to actually hook up. It wasn't until that moment that the book pulled me in.

Now, onto my soapbox: MURDER LIST, though given a Four Rose Read, is slow to start. I was, dare I say it, a tiny bit bored, at first. (But this is Julie Garwood, right? You have to hang in there!) I also thought I never would say this, but there is such a thing as too much background. The prologue is there to introduce you to three best pals, and cement how close they are to one another. But the focus of the story is truly on one of them, while the other two make guest appearances. Actually, that side plot is used to distract us from the real focus of the story, the heroine, and in my opinion could have been eliminated entirely from the book.

There are glimpses of lines I have read from countless Garwood books before this one. That alone kept me reading because I enjoy her writing style so much. Well, that and her hot heroes. MURDER LIST is a good read with another great couple, and a mystery some might figure out a bit early, but still enjoy.

Shannon Johnson