Edna Buchanan, Love Kills

Love Kills

Edna Buchanan

Simon & Schuster, June 2007, $25.00, 320 pp.

ISBN 0743294769

Miami reporter Britt Montero is on a Caribbean island with no thoughts of ever coming back when her best friend Lottie, a photographer at the same paper, shows up. Lottie convinces her to go back to work so she doesn't have time to brood over the death of her fianc e. Before they leave they find a disposable camera on the beach with three photos left to be taken. When they get it developed, the pictures are of a couple enjoying their honeymoon.

When the coast guard sends a release that a boat went down in the Caribbean, Britt recognizes the photo of the missing couple as the same ones in the pictures she found. The groom Marsh Holt is found alive but his wife is dead, trapped inside when the boat sunk during a sudden squall. Britt feels sorry for the man but her reporter gene goes on red alert when he disappears after the funeral. His wife was insured for a million dollars and further research shows Holt had married several times with each of his new wives dying in accidents on their honeymoon. Britt decides to pursue the case, especially when she fears he is getting married again and finds herself in a race to stop the wedding before he takes his wife on a deadly honeymoon.

Edna Buchanan has written a chilling thriller about a serial killer who is under no suspicion from the authorities because he cleverly plans each move he makes. In a twist, Britt ends up in jail for "stalking" him. When readers first meet the antagonist they feel sorry for him for his loss, but when they learn the truth about him, like Brett, they hope this "black widower" is caught and punished. LOVE KILLS is an appropriate title for this dark and deadly story, a trademark of the author's style.

Harriet Klausner