Paradise Lost
Taffy Cannon
Perseverance, Sep 2005, $13.95, 286 pp.
ISBN: 1880284804

At the Paradise Plaza Women's Health Spa in Santa Barbara, guide Lora Emerson leads an early morning hike of two customers, TV star Vanessa Wyatt and Stanford coed Holly Constantine on a walk in the Las Padres National Forest. Not too long into the walk, two thugs assault the three women with pepper spray. Lora's eyelids are taped shut and she is tied to a tree. The assailants take Holly and Vanessa with them.

As Lora is rushed to the hospital in severe pain, Santa Barbara Police Detective Suzanne Mathis investigates. The Parks for the People kidnappers send an email to the Paradise Plaza home page demanding a ransom to build parks in weird locales. Holly's entertainment lawyer mother Constance goes berserk partially because she brought her daughter here to lose weight not herself. She yells at the cops including FBI Agent Eric Stonehouse and the spa management while her husband drinks to forget how he will raise $8 million demanded by the kidnappers. In their own ways the two victims negotiate with the culprits to make their stay a little more comfortable as for Holly this is no worse than staying at the spa with her mother. Change that, this much better.

PARADISE LOST is a terrific crime thriller due to the strong cast. Readers will appreciate Holly, who plans to make life changes if she survives negotiating with the kidnappers in a different way than the whining sexy Vanessa. Holly's parents are a hoot as her mother rips skin off everyone who has the misfortune to fall into her sphere while her father hides from his wife with alcohol. Fans will take immense pleasure with Taffy Cannon's strong stand alone acerbic thriller.

Harriet Klausner