Review: Oh, yeah, it was deadly all right...yawn...
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 9, 2013
The prequel to the Tall, Dark, and Deadly romance series based in Manhattan.My TakeYawn. Oops, sorry...didn't mean to yawn in your face. It was just so hard to stay awake through this. It started out well and quickly degenerated into manufactured tension and stupid drama.What? Reeves has to take over the law firm because...why? None of the reasons she poses are any different from why she shouldn't take it over? He abandoned her dad. An-n-d, what did she do? What obligation does the law firm have to the client anyway? He hired her dad. Her dad is out of the picture. So... Can anyone explain this to me? Why not just let the firm go? It would screw up the reasons for the story, of course. Which is a good reason to give me a better excuse!At least, Lindsey has her self-worth. That anyone else might prize something other than money or her idiot dad is beside the point.I can understand her wanting to stop practicing criminal law. If what she believes to be truth really is. And I can see where working counterterrorism can be more satisfying as it's actively going after the bad guys instead of helping the bad guys go free. Duh.Please tell me that a "venti Carmel latte" is a coffee drink named for the city in California. I know Jones can spell "caramel" as it shows up just paragraphs later. Lindsey and Mark take an extra day in Vegas to play, relax, meet an "alien female with big hears".Well, I suppose making Lindsey an idiot who allows her issues to control her life and enable her to make stupid decisions is one way of creating drama. So, Lindsey runs off to Vegas, away from Mark, and then she cries because he doesn't chase after her. How old is she?? Twelve??Oooh, Lindsey finally figures it out. She already knows what a jerk her dad is. That Mark had a blow-up with her dad and left the law firm. That he might have had good reason for it. Especially the ones he's been telling her since the confrontation at his apartment door. Oh, no, we have to get halfway through the story before Lindsey realizes that gee, maybe Mark wasn't the bad guy. L.A.M.E.About the best part of this story is Mark's retort to goading by John Conner about how police errors set a lot of bad guys free. That he hates what defense lawyers "have to do for the system...as much as anyone else, but I respect what the principles are built on."Jones, please find an editor or some friends who won't be afraid to tell you the truth. You have a nice idea that got lost.The StoryDamn, damn, damn, she has got to talk Reeves into taking it over. She can't do it. She doesn't want it. Not after the fiasco of the Hudson case a few years ago. He's got to return and take this case over. Take the law firm over. Who cares why he left. As long as she doesn't have to do it.This new case, the Williams one, it's just like Hudson all over again. Dead girls who look. Just. Like. Lindsey. And her father is sure that Williams is innocent. Just. Like. Hudson.And Lindsey can't do it. Reeves has got to come back. But he has his price and Lindsey isn't sure it's safe to pay it.The CharactersLindsey Paxton (and her twin Lindsay) is a twit. Oops again, er, I mean, she's an FBI agent now after having run away from her father's law firm. Everything needs to be her way to her happiness and screw with anyone else's issues, 'cause she's the only one allowed to have them. Oops, bitchy much? Edward Paxton is her father, and he desperately wants Lindsey to come back to the law firm. The one he's screwed up. Especially now that he has cancer. Maggie Moore is her father's long-term assistant, and she's happy Lindsey is back.Mark Reeves is her father's ex-law partner. He's now consulting in Manhattan and wants nothing to do with Edward's law firm. Todd Walker is one of her father's current partners.Steve is her former NYC partner at the FBI. He's teamed up with Garth Bryant these days. Greg Harrison is her ex-boyfriend and the district attorney. Lindsey just loves to meet up with him so she can make more really stupid decisions.Professor Roger Williams is the new Hudson. A professor at NYU who claims he's innocent. Detectives Kevin Woods and John Conner are Vegas PD and very cautious as to why Lindsey and Mark are in Las Vegas inquiring about their murder victims.Friends of the latest victim, Elizabeth Moore, include Vicky Kencade who provides a crucial clue; Tom Maloney and Todd Rogers both seem to be Elizabeth's recently ex-boyfriend; Rick, a.k.a., Cowboy, is Todd's roommate (hmmm, Lindsey never does manage to visit Tom Maloney); and, Victor Ruzo owns the Pink Panther bar that some victims patronized.The CoverThe cover is a couple holding each other: her arms loosely around his neck, his hands on her hips. She's a long-haired blonde looking out at us while he's a long-haired brunet who only looks corporate due to his button-down striped shirt.I'm guessing that the title refers to the Secrets Exposed when Lindsey finally learns the truth about Mark's contretemps with her father and Greg's complicity in the cover-up. It could also refer to what we learn about Jones and her editors...