Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Review: One Hot Forty-Five by B.J. Daniels

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Title: One Hot Forty-Five
Series: Whitehorse, Montana: The Corbetts
Author: B.J. Daniels
Read copy: eBook
Published: October 1, 2009
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 1426841353
ISBN-13: 9781426841354

APB: LOOKING FOR THE LAST CORBETT BACHELOR

A woman in trouble was like the call of a siren for any of the Corbett boys. And while Dede Chamberlain was in big trouble, she was off-limits to Lantry Corbett. But Dede was desperate and didn't have time to be levelheaded like Lantry. She needed his help and she'd get it at gunpoint if she had to.

COULD HE BE FOUND AT THE ALTAR?

With a wild Montana blizzard bearing down, they set out...only to make it as far as a deserted cabin. Cloistered away as the snow swirls outside, Dede finds the protection she needs in Lantry's strong arms. But with a killer and the law after them, Lantry will need a heapin' portion of Christmas blessings and the help of the whole Corbett clan to mete out justice in Whitehorse before it's too late.

My rating:

Lantry Corbett, (once) ruthless divorce lawyer, is more than a little surprised when his brother Shane, Whitehorse deputy sheriff, calls about a new inmate in a Whitehorse cell. Dede Chamberlain, ex-wife of one of his clients, has escaped a mental institution (again!) and claimed Lantry is in grave danger.

As he goes to investigate, the woman - who is nothing like he'd imagined a gold-digging, crazy ex-wife might be, kidnaps him at gunpoint and drives him into a blizzard.

All the while claiming she isn't safe in the loony bin, that there are two men after her and now they're after Lantry as well, because her ex-husband (who turns up dead and she's suspected of snuffing him after she's escaped from the aforementioned loony bin) has entrusted something into Lantry's safekeeping.

The only problem is, Lantry has absolutely no idea what she's talking about, but he still believes her. Although she's mentally unstable...Or that's what her ex-husband - his client - had told him.

There was just too much stuff going on in this book for me to really get into the whole reading experience.
There was the supposedly crazy woman that seemed uncannily sane despite her ramblings about two killers trailing her, there was the once ruthless divorce lawyer who (rumors claimed) eat his young that couldn't explain his attraction to the crazy woman and despite his good intentions of turning her in, just couldn't bring himself to do it. There were two other escapees from the nuthouse, a schizophrenic sidekick that seemed to be there just because of an author's whim, and a totally crazy (thanks to her even crazier grandmother who'd locked her into the coal bin when she was little) woman with a grudge against her mother (never totally explained) that wanted to ruin her mother's marriage by all means possible. Again, her motive was never explained, but there was the ghost of her dead grandmother talking to her, so I guess that makes it okay. And of course, you have two killers gunning for both Dede and Lantry - again with no apparent reason, but for a miniature boat...But that boat had a secret compartment containing...

As I said, the story was crammed with two different plots, a myriad of bland characters doing God knows what for God knows what reasons, the h/h didn't click (at least from where I was standing), and the pace was so slow that any slower and it would've been going backward.
I don't know why the author thought the snow covered Montana landscape with its constant blizzard threats would make it all better, because it didn't. I guess it should've augmented the suspenseful atmosphere, but it just made me wish for summer and the book to be over.

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