Mary Lynn Baxter Evening Hours

Evening Hours

Mary Lynn Baxter

Mira, Oct 2005, $6.99, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0778322319

The other driver ran the stop at full speed, leaving passenger Vera Benton dead, her daughter, sixteen year old Kaylie severely injured after catapulting through the driver's side windshield, and her spouse Edgar shocked and dismayed. Kaylie recovers, but has a noticeable limp and can never have children.

Sixteen years later, Edgar is proud of his beloved daughter who has won the Houston Woman of the Year Award for the success of her Benton Modeling Agency. At the gala, he notices she and District Attorney Cutler McFarland seem attracted to one another; this is the first time he has seen his daughter show any interest in a man in years. When Edgar learns some interesting information on Cutler, he blackmails him into courting and marrying his daughter, or else he will expose the naked truth hurting Cutler's dying mother. Though used to playing hardball and running for reelection, Cutler would do anything for his mom, but he does not have to fake being in love with Kaylie, though he fears her reaction if she ever learns of her dad's extortion ploy.

EVENING HOURS is a tense tale that grips the audience on several levels, especially what happens if Kaylie learns about her father's good intentions extortion, and Cutler's cases hurting his reelection chances. The latter is quite interesting because Cutler knows first hand that by doing the right thing as he recently did, he lost a friend his prime financial backer. Either one of two current cases could cost him his reelection, even if he does everything legally correct. The subplot with a powerbroker, adds depth to a tight legal thriller.