Jesse
Brooks comes home from work to find that her house is locked and no one home. Unable to find her house keys, she returns to work
to look for them. Totally frustrated, she is
still unable to find her keys and her husband, Dave, is not answering the phone. She decides to return home and get in even if she
has to break a window, only to find that the front door is open and although the lights
are on, the house is quiet. She runs upstairs
calling for her husband and finds him in a pool of blood.
He apologizes to her and tells her he loves her.
He also tells her that she is in danger before he expires. The police arrive and Detective Paul Rawlings
takes over the case.
Kyle
Whitman is the main suspect. He is a handsome
doctor that worked with Dave. They had been
making plans to become partners. Jesse leaves
New York and settles in New Jersey in fear of her life.
She is an attorney, is working for a new firm and now, a year later, Kyle tries to
hire her to defend him not realizing that she was Dave’s wife. Paul convinces her to play along with Kyle and
hopefully learn something from him. She
agrees to do it but is not really happy with the idea.
She is very attracted to Kyle and does not want emotions to get in the way of
finding out what happened to her husband. Kyle
is knifed, more people are murdered and Kyle remains the main suspect.
The
reader occasionally gets a glimpse of the murderer but there is no hint as to who it could
be, male or female. I found it a little
difficult to believe that the police would accuse Kyle after he was knifed himself. The murderer thinks he is very smart as he plants
the murder weapon and kills more people that get too close to what is really going on. There are stabbings, bombings, poisoning and
fires all to cover up the murderer’s nefarious activities. The reader hears his thoughts as he decides
to kill Jesse and blame it all on Kyle. All
the people that work with Jesse are suspect but none really stand out and the motive is
difficult to decipher. It certainly
keeps the reader guessing. There is
much more suspense than romance. Although
the writing is a little uneven, THE NIGHT SHE CAME HOME is a good first novel by Lori
Derby Bingley.
Reviewed
by Marilyn Heyman for The Road to Romance
January
2, 2003
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