Mary Lynn Baxter, In Hot Water

In Hot Water

Mary Lynn Baxter

Mira, Feb 2005, $6.99

ISBN: 0778321428

Maci Malone goes on vacation to Jamaica where she meets a hunk. The pair share an incredible night of passionate lovemaking. Though neither expects a morning after, "Stan" and "Mildred" desire this to happen. However, there was none as both know they should have not indulged though they could not stop. They separately left for their respective home destinations never expecting to see one another again.

Not long afterward, Maci agrees to marry Dr. Seymour Ramsey who offers her security, something she needs in life. Life is good and Maci gives birth to a child Jonah. However, the illusion of stability shatters when her spouse is sued for malpractice and charged with manslaughter for the wrongful death of a patient due to the abusive influence of prescription drugs. Seymour asks his estranged adult son Holt to serve as his legal council. However, Maci is stunned because Holt is the hunk in Jamaica who took her to ecstasy and may be the biological father of her son.

Maci is a likable protagonist who feels her world collapse with the charges against her husband and then further implodes when Holt arrives. Unlike the harassed lead female character, the two males are not amiable as Holt is nasty and Seymour pathetic. Still, this is a fine, contemporary soap opera even if coincidence generates the triangular tension.

Harriet Klausner