A.K.A. Jane

September 29, 1997
This high-charged thriller doesn't let up for a moment as it follows Jane Nichols, an emotionally drained undercover agent for Britain's MI-5, into a less than peaceful semi-retirement. Haunted by the death of her lover, who was betrayed seven years ago by a rogue infiltrator named Jim O'Neil, Jane travels to Savannah, Ga., where she easily slips into one of her many alter egos--that of Max Murdock, bestselling author of a hard-boiled detective series. As she begins to seek background material for her next mystery, Jane is dumbfounded when she reads in the paper that Jim O'Neil, respected local citizen, has been voted Georgia's Businessman of the Year. Vowing to find out more about his "business," Jane allies herself once more with MI-5 and is aided by several canny American agents in her investigation. Romantic flames are ignited when she meets up with ruggedly handsome Alex Callaghan, Savannah's gentlemanly yet highly competent chief of police. Jane is ambivalent. Can she still be a cold-blooded assassin when she's feeling so dewey-eyed and romantic? There are very few surprises here, but there are wonderfully precise characterizations, explosive action and a liaison that is both funny and sizzling.

October 1, 1997
Tan's first novel is ambitious, cunning, and intriguing. Her heroine is British intelligence agent and sometime mystery novelist Jane Nichols, who has reached the end of an extremely difficult and emotionally exhausting year during which she infiltrated a band of IRA shooters but saw several of her colleagues brutally murdered. And she's still not recovered from the gruesome murder of her lover seven years earlier. Emotionally and mentally exhausted, she decides to leave the intelligence service and concentrate on her mystery novels. When her literary agent offers her a chance to visit Savannah, Georgia, Jane enthusiastically seizes the opportunity, failing to realize that the road to the South will lead her straight into the wide-open arms of an old and lethal enemy and bring her a handsome new lover. Although Tan's plot is occasionally rocky and sometimes improbable, she knows how to measure out a winning combination of danger, suspense, and romance. A promising new series in the thriller-chiller genre. ((Reviewed October 1, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)