April Star, Tropical Warnings

Tropical Warnings

April Star

Five Star, November 2006, $25.95

ISBN: 1594144796

Laura Madison runs Big Pine Key RV Resort campsite in the Florida Keys. Last year an unknown individual began sending her gifts and leaving her notes. Recently, the individual has become increasingly graphic, with clear threats to kill her family, employees, and family so they can be together on Valentine's Day. Urged by her friend, the only other person aware of "Slippery", Laura visits private investigator David Jennings, who feels he has met the woman he will marry.

She does not like his humor or come-ons until he describes exactly her problem. He explains that an erotomaniac stalker distorts reality; he knows first hand, as he was the victim of one who eventually committed suicide. He tells her he will fight dirty to keep her safe, but that they must pretend to be a loving couple to get Slippery out of the shadows. His plans work almost too well when an apparently outraged Slippery angrily tries to burn his beloved and her lover to death. Thus the first salvo in the war has been fired.

The cat and mouse fight takes a backseat to the frightening lucid description of an erotomaniac stalker; bluntly, this is good to know, but scary as hell. The storyline contains two strong protagonists, with David's humorous inner thoughts serving as tension abating asides; however, he is very serious when it comes to keeping the woman he loves at first sight safe from a psycho. The efforts to uncover and stop the stalker are action-packed, but once again TROPICAL WARNINGS is a cautionary romantic suspense thriller that pulls no punches when it comes to stalking.