Jasmine Cresswell, Payback

Payback

Jasmine Cresswell

Mira, Nov 2007, $7.99

ISBN: 9780778324874

After being a media sensation (for two books - SUSPECT and MISSING), the late wealthy bigamist Ron Raven is no longer headlines news and his two families are finally moving on past his transgressions. Everything changes when Chef Luke Savarini sees Ron dining in a Chicago restaurant. He calls Ron's "second" wife who informs her daughter, Chef Kate Fairfax, what her former lover claims.

Kate reluctantly agrees to talk with Luke, but believes he is either an idiot or for some reason cruel. However, once her rage cools down to a slow burn, she begins to accept the possibility that her father pulled off an even wilder stunt than anyone imagined. She plans to learn the truth, but someone wants Ron to remain "dead" so if his daughter and her ex need to die so be it.

This is an exciting ending to the Ravens and Fairfax trilogy although the police come across as more incompetent than the Keystone cops. The story line is fast-paced as the lead couple investigates what happened to Ron but their attraction reigniting in a second chance subplot seems unnecessary as the hunt for Raven, if he lives, is more than poetic justice to sustain the PAYBACK.

Harriet Klausner