Previously : Maggie Kelly was a
failed-ex-romance writer and is currently a best-selling writer of a Regency-era mystery
book series. This author created her characters so thoroughly that the investigator/hero
of her books, Alexander Blakely, the Viscount Saint Just and his goofy sidekick Sterling
Balder, came alive, first inside Maggie’s head and later on, inside her Manhattan
apartment! And then they even help Maggie solve a real-life murder mystery, as we saw in
the debut book of this series, ‘Maggie needs an Alibi’.
When this book begins, we see that Maggie is still frustrated and so
puffs away like a chimney as her unwanted guests even now reside with her, leaving her
with virtually no privacy with the attractive Lieutenant Wendell, eat her out of hearth
and home, max out her credit cards and generally make themselves very comfortable. Staying
well in character, Alex continues to tempt his creator with his rakish sex appeal and is
arrogant beyond words as befits a Regency-era man. But he and Balder are adapting rapidly
to today’s world as can be seen by Balder’s foray into the world of rap music
and Alex’s clever business abilities.
It is at this time that WAR (We Are Romance), the country’s
largest romance writer’s group, holds a convention in NY City. Even though Maggie is
strictly no longer a romance writer, she’s still a member and gets invited. Against
her wishes, Alex persuades her to attend as he’s very desirous of entering the cover
model contest! Maggie is already gloomily contemplating the cattiness and competition that
is involved in such affairs and all her fears are proved true when she right away
encounters her nemesis, romance author Felicity Boothe Simmons. But worse is in store as a
series of malicious pranks plague the convention and with time they only grow deadlier and
soon someone is dead! Within no time, Alex takes over the investigation and Maggie is left
to simultaneously fume and wonder as her creation slips right into his role of an
investigator.
In this book, we see author Kasey Michaels giving this detecting duo
of Maggie and Alex yet another puzzling mystery to solve. As the murder takes place during
a large romance convention, suspects are too many and this only makes the case more
difficult to solve and thus more interesting. So mystery-wise the book keeps up its end,
but the character development leaves something to be desired. Too frequent an emphasis is
laid on Maggie’s uncontrollable nicotine addiction to convey an impression of her
irritability, moodiness and general bad humor. Alex, on the other hand, provides some fun
as a Regency-era man in today’s modern world. But too much is made of his foppishness
and his arrogance, and while this was initially quite funny to read about, after sometime
it begins to strike a false note. Secondary character Balder is much more fun to read
about and his character development is apt and refreshing. The simmering sexual tension
between Maggie and Alex which began from the first book and which was hinted at heavily in
the beginning of this book, somehow gets lost during the solving of the murder mystery.
There was also an exciting love triangle brewing between Maggie, Alex and Lieutenant
Wendell, and again, not much progress is made in this direction. The book is overall
interesting and entertaining, but lacks a punch, an edge to it, sexual and otherwise,
which renders it a bit bland.
Reviewed By Rashmi Srinivas for The Road to Romance
August 5, 2003 |
