Smash Cut

Starred review from June 22, 2009
This superlative romantic thriller from bestseller Brown (Smoke Screen
) features a particularly memorable villain, sociopath Creighton Wheeler, who’s obsessed with re-enacting scenes from films like Strangers on a Train
and Frenzy
. When Creighton’s wealthy uncle, Paul Wheeler, is shot dead in an apparent robbery at an Atlanta hotel, Paul’s close friend, gallery owner Julie Rutledge, attempts to persuade the police that Creighton ordered the hit. Creighton’s father asks Derek Mitchell, a criminal lawyer, to represent the accused Creighton, but Derek declines because he had a plane tryst en route to Paris with Julie after Paul’s murder. Angered by Derek’s refusal, Creighton stalks Julie; targets Derek’s dog, Maggie; and plots to kill the ex-girlfriend of his henchman, Billy Duke, after Billy has second thoughts about helping Creighton. Brown skillfully charts Julie and Derek’s quest to catch the slippery fiend. Multiple smash cuts (abrupt scene shifts) lead to a wonderfully frenzied finish.

July 1, 2009
A rich man is murdered, and suspicion falls on his much-younger mistress and the movie-obsessed nephew who is heir to his fortune.

When ace defense attorney Derek Mitchell meets stunning Julie Rutledge on a transatlantic flight, he's far too distracted by her considerable charms to question his good fortune. Back on the ground, he discovers that his mile-high-club partner was not only the companion of wealthy blueblood Paul Wheeler, recently gunned down in a hotel stick-up, but one of the people most likely to benefit from his demise. For her part, Julie claims that her preemptive seduction was merely a ploy to ensure that Derek would be compromised and unable to represent Paul's creepy nephew Creighton, whom she is convinced had Paul killed. Narcissistic, manipulative Creighton is certainly a piece of work, but does he really have what it takes to be a killer? Well, yeah, but he has an alibi, and although Derek really wants to believe Julie, he senses that she's hiding something. Her fate lies in the unlikely hands of Billy Duke, a one-time con man Creighton somehow convinced to kill Paul, while keeping his own hands clean. As the evidence mounts against Julie, Creighton finds creative ways to torment her and Derek, borrowing liberally from the classic crime movies he watches repeatedly. Creighton's twisted recipe for mayhem includes a bit of Hitchcock's Frenzy, a lot of Strangers on a Train, and even a nod to The Godfather's famous horse-head scene. The stakes keep getting higher until clearing Julie's name becomes secondary to preventing the death of an innocent woman who happened to fall for the wrong guy.

Packed with surprises and the kind of propulsive plot for which Brown (Smoke Screen, 2008, etc.) is justly famous, this effort will not disappoint her readers. Too bad she doesn't go any deeper with her characters, especially chivalrous Derek, who is far too nice to be convincing as a shark lawyer.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2009
Browns latest romantic thriller opens with a bang: business mogul Paul Wheeler is gunned down during a robbery in an elevator. Pauls presumed mistress, art gallery owner Julie Rutledge, is next to him when hes shot, and shes convinced the murder was masterminded by Pauls sadistic, conniving nephew, Creighton, who stands to inherit Pauls business. Creightons father tries to hire famed defense attorney Derek Mitchell to defend his sons interests, but Julie comes up with a novel way to compromise the lawyer: seducing him on a flight back from Paris. Derek has his own reservations about Creighton, but hes not pleased by Julies manipulation, even though hes unable to deny his attraction to her. As Derek and Julie try desperately to find a link between Creighton and the elevator shooter, the sociopath sets his sights on the one person he fears could connect him to the crime. Brown delivers more than a few thrills and surprises in this taut, satisfying page-turner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)