Now or Never

February 2, 1997
Things haven't been going well for 40-year-old Boston homicide detective Harry Jordan. The other cops call him "Prof" because of his Harvard law degree (though they seem more impressed with his football career at Michigan State), but neither his fancy education nor his fat trust fund has been a speck of help to him over the past year as he has labored to catch a serial killer. With the death of a third victim, a co-ed at Boston University, Harry decides to enlist the aid of investigative reporter Mallory "Mal" Malone, known to her fans as "the TV detective." Their partnership gets off to a prickly start, though Mal is charmed by Harry's malamute, Squeeze. But, before long, Mal and Harry are sparking instead of sparring, even as Mal dreads that Harry will unearth the demons from her own disturbed past. Adler supplies a predictably sordid serial-killer plot, including a simplistic scenario that roots the killer's need to savagely rape and kill women in his sexual abuse by his fat, repulsive mother. (The creep even raises his glass to his mother's photo: "To the mother. Who made all this possible.") Soon, however, the murders recede to become mostly a grisly backdrop for romance. Although her principals (particularly Squeeze) are likable enough, Adler (The Secret of the Villa Mimosa) relies on cliches (the killer stares fixedly "like a deer caught in the headlights") and writes in stereotypes. She does well enough with romance. It's only when she endeavors to mix guns with her roses that she ends up firing blanks.

November 15, 1996
Can a TV detective help solve the murders that have Boston police detective Harry Jordan stumped? Find out in the latest from Adler, author of seven previous best sellers--and look for the teaser chapter on BDD online .

February 15, 1997
Adler's novel juxtaposes a particularly gruesome murder against sex and romance, sort of "Silence of the Lambs" meets Danielle Steel. Harry Jordan is an unusual cop: the urbane scion of an old-money Boston family and a Harvard-educated lawyer. Faced with a stalled serial-killer investigation, Harry agrees to let Mallory Malone, the host of an "America's Most Wanted"type program, feature his case on the air. Predictably, romantic sparks fly, but there's something mysterious about the beautiful Mallory. Eventually Harry pries his lover's deepest secrets out of her and finds she may hold the clue to the murderer's identity. Nerve-jangling suspense, steamy sex, glamorous characters, and graphic descriptions of the victims' last moments will grab readers' attention and may even make up for the too-glib dialogue, sadly predictable plot, and overwrought prose. Still, the novel definitely packs a wallop, and that alone will draw a sizable segment of the thriller-reading audience. ((Reviewed February 15, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)