Erin McCarthy, Mouth to Mouth

Mouth to Mouth

Erin McCarthy

Kensington Brava, Jan 2005, $14.00, 280 pp.

ISBN: 075820843X

Special Operations Police Detectives Russ Evans and Jerry Anders freeze their butts off waiting for con artist Trevor Dean to appear though both are surprised by his current choice of a victim. Trevor selects lonely, plain-looking females as his marks, but the woman working at Starbucks is beautiful. When Trevor fails to show up, the two cops wonder if Laurel Wilkins is Trevor's girlfriend. Russ enters the coffee shop, but is stunned when Laurel hugs him like they have known each other forever. They soon realize that probably Trevor was impersonating him over a chat line and that Laurel is most likely his next victim.

Russ thinks Laurel is a "cute fuzzy bunny", but he does not go out with sweet women as all he wants is casual sex. However, she shocks him when she mentions casual sex as that seems so out of character for her. He wonders if she is diverting him from capturing Trevor. Still he cannot get enough of Laurel although that breaks the rules of his personal and professional lives even as he detests that he must use the woman he loves as a pawn in the cat and mouse game with Trevor.

This erotic, police-procedural romance grips the audience from the moment a bewildered Russ pays for coffee at a quarter a sip until the final altercation with Trevor threatening his beloved Laurel. The lead couple is an endearing pair with Laurel's deafness deftly intertwined into the strong plot as her impairment is overcome with little courtesies like lip reading. Though Trevor is an odious predator taking advantage of the lonely, fans will appreciate Erin McCarthy's strong tale.

Harriet Klausner