Out of the Storm

Rating:
Summary: fine police procedural romance
Review: In Camp David, the FBI and Secret Service accuse Washington Post reporter Laurel Stewart of stealing papers from Vice President Aiken. Her paper's Managing Editor Lois Merryman fires Laurel for making up a story involving Aiken that the conscientious journalist cross checked with White House informants and a Department of Energy source. She wonders who wanted her out of the way and why.

Laurel's roommate Chloe Hollister is part of the Veep's contingent heading to his hometown of Somersett, South Carolina for an annual festival. That afternoon Chloe calls from Somersett telling Laurel that she has an idea who set her up. She says she will call later as she cannot speak freely at this time. When Chloe fails to call, a worried Laurel rushes to Somersett to insure her friend is safe, but Chloe is missing. Laurel visits the police; homicide detective Joe Gannon listens to her story since he investigates the death of Sissy Beale, who might be Chloe. Laurel states the corpse is not her roommate. Over the next few days her friend's vanishing and the Sissy case interconnect even as Joe and Laurel fall in love.

The lead couple is a delightful pairing deserving of one another although Joe feels inadequate having let down his nice former wife and their now deceased son. The two suspense subplots interconnect smoothly and not just through a paranormal element when Laurel enters a trance in which she enacts the final minutes of Sissy. Although the villain is so insane that it seems impossible that no one in his circle or the media recognized that, fans will appreciate this police procedural romance due to solid casting and a fine suspense plot.

Harriet Klausner