Smoke Screen

Narrator Victor Slezak is masterful at spinning this thriller, which he delivers in Southern drawls listeners will savor. Packed with twists and turns, the story features characters listeners will love to hate and can't help but love. The last thing Charleston news anchor Britt Shelley remembers is going to meet with an old flame, a cop who was one of four heroes in a fire five years earlier. He's promised her the news story of her career. The next thing she knows, she wakes up to find herself in bed with him. He's dead, she's charged with murder, and she has no memory of how he died. Brown is an expert at romantic suspense, and this is a great listen. A.C.P. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

June 30, 2008
At the start of this scorching if somewhat formulaic thriller from bestseller Brown (Play Dirty
), Charleston, S.C., TV reporter Britt Shelley wakes up in bed next to the dead body of police detective Jay Burgess. While Jay had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, the authorities suspect foul play. Jay's former best friend, ex-fireman Raley Gannon, suffered a similar shock five years earlier, waking up next to party girl Suzi Monroe's naked corpse after a party at Jay's home. Raley had been investigating a fire at a local police station that took seven lives, despite the heroic efforts of Jay and several other cops, one of whom is now South Carolina's attorney general. Cleared of Suzi's death, Raley eventually teams with Britt to look into a nasty arson coverup. Brown laces her dependable romantic fireworks with a solid action-filled plot, though readers should be prepared for a few stereotypes, including a limp-wristed gay, a macho skinhead and a power-mad female politician.