Tasting Fear

August 3, 2009
"Art-hungry psychopaths" and three daring couples enliven this trio of linked romantic suspense novellas from McKenna (Ultimate Weapon). The D'Onofrio sisters' adoptive mother is a former Italian contessa who dies while being interrogated by an agent of Ulf Haupt, a Nazi SS officer's son who has picked up his father's search for the invaluable Renaissance-era sketches in the Contessa's possession. The Contessa has left clues to the location of the sketches for her daughters, who find themselves with a puzzle on their hands. Each novella follows one of the daughters as they pursue their mother's killer and the treasure she has left for them-all while seducing and enlisting the help of three helpful lovers. Though the Nazi art angle is as moth-eaten as the crooks are over-the-top, McKenna expertly stokes the fires of romantic tension.