Stella Cameron A Marked Man

A Marked Man

Stella Cameron

Mira, Nov 2006, $24.95

ISBN 0778323587

New York plastic surgeon Max Savage flees the city after being acquitted of the murders of two of his former girlfriends. He needs to start over in a place as far from his current practice. Thus he opens up a facility in Toussaint, Louisiana. However, his past follows when a local female applying for work at his clinic disappears just after the interview. Local authorities suspect Max, but his alibi exonerates him though nothing can relive his mind that the nightmare has trailed him to this Cajun Parrish.

Annie Duhon arrives in Toussaint from nearby St. Martinville to start over as she has not recovered from a brutal rape that occurred ten years ago. She and Max meet with both attracted and interested, but she fears commitment not just because of the rape, but because she also she has visions that anyone close to her will soon die in an inferno. Still they go to her hometown for lunch not realizing this innocent lunch date places both in danger from each other's "stalker" as Cajun seer Wazoo warns them time after time.

Fans will appreciate the return to Toussaint home of several Stella Cameron romantic suspense thrillers (see A GRAVE MISTAKE). The lead couple is a likable pairing of two fearful protagonists, but Wazoo owns the plot with her often amusing asides. The suspense builds up as murders occur in between the explicit sexual interludes, which makes this more romance (some will insist erotica with notches on the penis) than a suspense thriller although there is plenty of tension. Though the culprit is obvious, Ms. Cameron's Bayou Bengal boosters will enjoy her latest steamy sex and death romance.

Harriet Klausner