White Hot
Sandra Brown
Simon & Schuster, August 2004, $25.95, 422 pp.
ISBN 0743245539

It has been ten years since she left Destiny, Louisiana, the town controlled by her father Huff Hoyle and his prodigal son Chris, but her younger brother Danny died and Sayre Lynch wants to be there for his funeral. She plans to leave right after he is laid to rest but she changes her mind when the deputy sheriff says that it looks as if Danny did not commit suicide, but was murdered. Circumstantial evidence links Chris to Danny's death and even the sheriff, though in Holt's pocket, can't stop the investigation.

The family lawyer Beck Merchant is bought and paid for by Huff but that doesn't stop the attraction Sayre feels for him. The foundry is the town's main business and Huff rules it with an iron fist but trouble is brewing as safety conditions are non-existent and the labor union is trying to get Huff's workers to join. Sayre is on the side of the workers and fights for their rights, not realizing she is precipitating the very violence she wants to avoid and getting in the way of Beck's plans for the Huff empire and the Holts.

Once again, Sandra Brown presents her myriad of readers with an action thriller that will keep reader attention from first page to last. All the major characters have dark secrets in their past that makes them interesting, dynamic and as WHITE-HOT as a bomb going off. The female protagonist is no angel but her motives are pure and she does care about the town's welfare even if she sometimes makes the wrong move and incites trouble. This book is heading to the New York Times best-seller list, deservedly so.

Harriet Klausner