WORTH THE TRIP

Author: Penny McCall ISBN: 9780425238479 11/2010 SUSPENSE Publisher: BERKLEY

For behavioral psychologist Norah MacArthur, relationships and family are stressful and messy. That’s why she leads a quiet, clinical, solitary life. That is, until the days leading up to the release of her con artist father from jail. For fifteen years, Julius has managed to conceal the location of his stolen bank loot but now everyone, from two-bit crooks to the Feds, is scrambling to get their hands on it—and Norah is the perfect leverage. It’s a quick leap from ‘control group’ to ‘out of control’—as FBI agent Trip Jones knows all too well. He might like to strangle Norah himself, but he’s been sent to protect her. Besides, behind Norah’s psycho-babble and ugly suits there's something special. Something way more valuable than ill-gotten gains—and just mabye a real-life study in love...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Prior to picking up WORTH THE TRIP, I had only read one other Penny McCall book (ACE IS WILD).  While I found ACE IS WILD to be decent enough, I thought that WORTH THE TRIP was really good.  McCall’s writing and storytelling have improved greatly.  In this book, professor and author Norah MacArthur and FBI agent Trip Jones are trying to find the loot from a bank robbery, which left Norah’s incarcerated father the only surviving partner. 

The story starts off with a fantastic scene between Trip and Norah and, as far as those two are concerned, stays that way throughout.  McCall does a great job with the dialogue between Norah and Trip.  I also think that Norah is a good character, overall.  She is completely believable, and both her actions and reactions are in line with the character.  What took away from the story was the various people involved in hiding and looking for the stolen goods.  When those individuals and their reasons for their involvement were revealed, it seemed a bit thin, especially Hollie, the reporter.  But the romance between the two main characters more than made up for that, to me.

Christina Baker