The Strong, Silent Type (Harlequin Intrigue, No. 519)

Rating:
Summary: The Strong, Silent Type
Review: Jule McBride, an author known for her lighter romances, makes her second trip to Intrigue with "The Strong Silent Type." On the day of Alice Eastman's wedding to Dylan Nolan, Dylan vanishes, her maid of honor is found murdered, and a little witness names Dylan as the killer. Two years later a stranger with familiar eyes arrives on her doorstep. Has Dylan come home? Is he a killer?

McBride uses several of the same devices she did in "Wed to a Stranger?" (Intrigue 418). A husband returns with a different face, a wife doesn't know whether to trust him. It's been done before and can work, but McBride's treatment of it here is much less plausible. The number of contrivances and coincidences used to keep the story going and the characters from learning the truth is aggravating. I spent too much of the story thinking, "I'm not buying any of this."

McBride's writing is smooth, although it does have a lighter feel that prevents any real sense of danger from building. It does help carry the reader past some of the more hard to swallow aspects for a while, until the book completely unravels in the final fifty pages. Out of nowhere, the heroine is convinced the hero is the killer. The hero is convinced he's the killer. They whine and cry and wring their hands, and all the reader can do is scream in frustration. Of course, we know Dylan isn't the killer. (That should not be considered a spoiler. The day a Harlequin hero turns out to be a psychopathic killer is the day Harlequin goes out of business.) Other writers have managed to create a sense of suspense where we really have to wonder, but it never seems possible here. Most readers will have figured out the only possible solution long before. It cannot be more obvious, yet the characters never seem to catch on. This reader's patience with the story and the characters ran out long before the climax, when one of the figures it out, conveniently, at the last possible moment.

Many readers will appreciate the glimpse McBride offers of Dylan and Alice's relationship before the wedding, so we can see what they are trying to recapture. The romance is generally well done until the characters turn into idiots. An annoying read.

Rating:
Summary: The Strong, Silent Type
Review: Jule McBride, an author known for her lighter romances, makes her second trip to Intrigue with "The Strong Silent Type." On the day of Alice Eastman's wedding to Dylan Nolan, Dylan vanishes, her maid of honor is found murdered, and a little witness names Dylan as the killer. Two years later a stranger with familiar eyes arrives on her doorstep. Has Dylan come home? Is he a killer?

McBride uses several of the same devices she did in "Wed to a Stranger?" (Intrigue 418). A husband returns with a different face, a wife doesn't know whether to trust him. It's been done before and can work, but McBride's treatment of it here is much less plausible. The number of contrivances and coincidences used to keep the story going and the characters from learning the truth is aggravating. I spent too much of the story thinking, "I'm not buying any of this."

McBride's writing is smooth, although it does have a lighter feel that prevents any real sense of danger from building. It does help carry the reader past some of the more hard to swallow aspects for a while, until the book completely unravels in the final fifty pages. Out of nowhere, the heroine is convinced the hero is the killer. The hero is convinced he's the killer. They whine and cry and wring their hands, and all the reader can do is scream in frustration. Of course, we know Dylan isn't the killer. (That should not be considered a spoiler. The day a Harlequin hero turns out to be a psychopathic killer is the day Harlequin goes out of business.) Other writers have managed to create a sense of suspense where we really have to wonder, but it never seems possible here. Most readers will have figured out the only possible solution long before. It cannot be more obvious, yet the characters never seem to catch on. This reader's patience with the story and the characters ran out long before the climax, when one of the figures it out, conveniently, at the last possible moment.

Many readers will appreciate the glimpse McBride offers of Dylan and Alice's relationship before the wedding, so we can see what they are trying to recapture. The romance is generally well done until the characters turn into idiots. An annoying read.