As Good As Dead
Beverly Barton
Zebra, Sep 2004, $6.99, 384 pp.
ISBN: 0821772198

Socialite Reve Sorrell returns to Cherokee Pointe, Tennessee to learn more about her family history and to find out for certain whether local bar owner Jazzy Talbot is her twin though the two look identical except for minor material things. Jazzy wonders why her beloved septuagenarian Aunt Sally would have lied about a sister and perhaps her mother while Reve struggles with being adopted.

Meanwhile a serial killer is murdering redheaded women who look similar to Reve and Jazzy. At the same time, the unknown assailant who appears to have killed their mother plans to murder the siblings, having failed to so three decades ago. While Jamie Upton plans to marry Jazzy, Sheriff Jacob Butler and Reve are attracted to one another, although neither wants to admit that, having had a homicide taint their first impressions (see THE LAST TO DIE). However, both men quickly realize they must do whatever including risking their lives to keep their respective girlfriends safe from two different killers.

This entertaining romantic suspense closes the Tennessee Mountain trilogy by answering the lingering questions from the previous novels while also returning many cats member. In fact, the lead romantic couple of AS GOOD AS DEAD had their "falling out" in the previous novel. The storyline is fast-paced with several subplots that ultimately tie together with two final confrontations involving the siblings separately. Though one must wonder how a certain male could miss the signs of who were the killers and their motives, Beverly Barton is as good as they get when it comes to satisfying sub-genre fans.

Harriet Klausner