Jacqueline Diamond The Baby Scheme

The Baby Scheme

Jacqueline Diamond

Harlequin American, Jul 2005, $4.99, 251 pp.

ISBN: 037375079X

Five years as a reporter at the Orange Coast Outlook had not prepared Alli Gardner to have someone steal her story from her computer, but Payne Jacobson, nephew of an assistant editor, did just that. He got the byline for exposing the Serene Beach, California Mayor LeMott running gambling tournaments. She complained and was fired.

Out of work and outraged, her career seems over until she gets a tip from a reliable source centering on an illegal baby adoption ring. She knows the danger of trying to uncover the people behind this money maker so she asks private detective Kevin Vickers to help her. They approach the case in opposite ways; she is filled with adrenaline and rushes into danger while he is much more cautious. As they work the case and try to also trap Payne, these opposites who belittle one another fall in love, but first there is a case to solve.

THE BABY SCHEME is a fabulous police procedural romantic suspense that really goes into hyperspeed when a reluctant Alli asks Kevin for help; reluctantly because she desires him yet tries to hide that with caustic humor. The plot is deftly handled so that the audience roots for the likable sleuths while wanting Payne to suffer pain and hoping the "big shots" behind the infant sales are caught. Fans will enjoy this diamond of a tale.

Harriet Klausner