HEAT LIGHTNING

Author: Colleen Thompson ISBN: 0505526719 11/2006 SUSPENSE Publisher: DORCHESTER

An unidentified man is terrorizing Luz Maria Montoya. Almost strangled to death in a deserted parking lot, she has no idea who is the perpetrator of this very personal hate crime. Is it someone she's antagonized in her role as community activist? The former lover who hid a violent side she deplores? Or maybe the partner of a cop whose life she inadvertently destroyed. Investigator Grant Holcomb has been assigned to find her attacker, but he makes no secret of his conflicting feelings. As Luz Maria receives threatening phone calls and grisly warnings, part of him wants to protect the sultry Latina, while the other half hopes the escalating tension between them will explode in an electrifying burst of... Heat Lightning.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I realize I am repeating myself, because I feel about HEAT LIGHTNING exactly the same way I did about the last Colleen Thompson book I read. Anyway, just like its predecessor, THE DEADLIEST DESIRE, HEAT LIGHTNING gets better. It gets pretty good, actually, so stick with it. That statement is not usually how I like to start my reviews, but I think it's important to say here, because it was really hard for me to do exactly that.

Though its not as thrilling as I need it to be, and I still don't like the heroine (she was featured in a previous work, FADE THE HEAT) HEAT LIGHTNING gets downright unpredictable and eerily emotional. Those two elements, coupled with what I can envision on the big screen as decent acting by some complex secondary characters, make it scary and quite the rollercoaster ride. Thankfully, those same elements rescue the book from the doldrums and bring it on par as a decent romantic suspense.

I have yet to read a Colleen Thompson as good as FATAL ERROR, but I have hopes to. She truly has a talent for creating lasting impressions of characters, even if you don't like them!

Shannon Johnson