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- Romance - |
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Looking for Trouble |
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 Looking for Trouble byAnne Stuart Harlequin 699pages, 2000 ISBN 0373201729 Reviewed by our UK Editor Rachel A. Hyde This compendium contains three novels by Anne Stuart and they whisk the reader away to a world full of surprises – fantasy, danger, humor and romance. In Cinderman, reporter Suzanna Molloy sneaks in to a building where dodgy experiments are suspected of being conducted and meets the handsome genius Dr Daniel Crompton. Daniel is the typical alpha male beloved of romance novelists, who exists to be cut down to size by the heroine. This is just what is about to befall him, along with the after effects of his formula which gets tested out in a hurry. I felt that this was the least original story in the book, with characters that were a little too "stock" and a plot that has been used too often. A few interesting touches and some lively humor kept the pace. The second story, Cry For The Moon, features a yuppie widow who finds herself and her two children penniless except for a creaky old apartment block in Chicago. This ramshackle place houses all sorts of misfits including the Baluchistani royal family, more than one would-be witch, the ghost of a gangster, and a cynical DJ. Somewhere there is a treasure hidden but this seems as unlikely as the ghost being real, or grumpy Simon Zebriskie falling in love with owner Marielle Brandt. But it is Halloween and strange things can happen. A heartwarming tale, a bit too sweet in places, although it kept me guessing who was behind it all and whether people in Baluchistan are quite as portrayed here – I suspect not. For Chasing Trouble, Stuart has taken the plots of more than one hardboiled detective novel. Ditzy heiress Sally MacArthur locates the perfect PI to find her sister and a missing jade falcon – Jack Diamond. All he lacks is a fedora. As the pair go off in pursuit of sister Lucy and her gangster boyfriend, Jack has more than enough to put up with and not merely Chinese hoods, a bogus health farm and dodgy motels. I enjoyed the humor in this story particularly, and the delightful take on the world of Dashiell Hammett and Humphrey Bogart. This was definitely the strongest story in an entertaining volume. I hadn’t read any of Anne Stuart’s work before but I will be looking for more of her novels in the future. |
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