August 6, 2007
The first novel in Cresswell's new Ravens trilogy is a taut suspenser concerning the double life of missing multimillionaire and secret bigamist Ron Raven. Having disappeared from a Miami hotel room, leaving signs of a bloody struggle, Raven's trail leads police to his two families, whom he had for 25 years kept in separate cities—one in Chicago and one in Thatch, Wyo.—and entirely clueless about each other. As police uncover deeper levels of deception, it comes to light that Raven used his Wyoming wife's ranch as collateral on a loan he received from his Chicago wife's brother, Adam. Furious, Adam shows up at the ranch to demand his money, only to find that Raven's fortune has vanished with him. Soon, he and Raven's daughter Megan (of the Wyoming clan) set out on a global search for the missing millions, leading them into a web of intrigue and murder. Grabbing readers from the get-go, Cresswell's book is fraught with sex, secrets and double-crosses, and her cast of characters—especially the charismatic leads—are sharply developed. Full and satisfying, Cresswell's twisty series kickoff is sure to please.
November 8, 2004
By the end of the first chapter of Sala's overwrought romance, Wes Holden, a former POW in Afghanistan who suffers from PTSD, has seen a Muslim terrorist kill his wife and son. Meanwhile, in rural West Virginia, Ally Monroe cares for a selfish father and two fully grown brothers. Her father urges her to marry a local widower, but Ally, who gave up on love long ago (what with being born with a game leg), dreams of a man walking out of the woods to save her from her drudgery—which is exactly what happens. The grief-stricken Wes, having regained his senses and realized that his slimy stepbrother wants to get his hands on his army benefits, escapes to Blue Creek, W.Va., where he meets Ally. But there's a mysterious farmer up on the mountain, and extremely unsettling things happen when Ally's brothers begin to help him harvest his crop. Though the two well-realized leads fall in love in a credible fashion, their story is lost amid the overwriting. The palpable aura of sadness surrounding Wes and Ally eventually grows to overwhelming proportions, because most of the other characters are incredibly selfish, greedy, evil or mad. To top it off, the book takes a gruesome, violent turn toward the end that makes it, and its Perils of Pauline
plot, even more absurd. Agent, Meredith Bernstein Literary Agency.