Good Morning, Darkness
Ruth Francisco
Mysterious, Sep 2004, $23.95, 305 pp.
ISBN: 0892968078

Anyone who knows Laura loves her; her admirers range from the Mexican fisherman to the police detective who teaches her self defense. However, no one cherishes Laura as much as Scott Goodsell does. The realtor awaits the right moment to propose to his beloved, but before he does she ends their relationship. Scott refuses to accept her no and stalks her until she obtains a restraining order.

An arm with an engagement ring on a finger washes up on Malibu Beach; the Mexican fisherman who found it believes this is Laura's limb. At the same time Scott closes Laura's apartment, writes a note in which she claims to be going back east to care for her ailing mother. He places her stuff in storage and forges her signature to pay her bills. The detective investigates the arm with its ring and finds out it belonged to Scott. He believes Scott killed Laura, but now has to prove it.

GOOD MORNING, DARKNESS is an exciting Hitchcock-like crime thriller in which the audience knows from the beginning that the antagonist has committed crimes including murder. Friends of Laura believe he did her in too and work hard to find the proof. Even with Ruth Francisco ceding all this from the onset, the author still provides plenty of surprises to this powerful dark side of love tale.

Harriet Klausner