Friday, October 24, 2008

Remember When


Having never read any of Nora Roberts or J.D. Robb's work before (they're the same author, in case you didn't know), I quickly found myself enjoying the tempo and intrigue Roberts managed to establish in the very first pages of the book.

Laine Tavish, formerly Elaine O'Hara, has changed from being the talented young thief working alongside her father, into a respectable antique shop owner in a small, close-knit community. When an accomplice of her father's runs into the street and is killed by a car right in front of her antique store, and is later discovered to have been a part of a 28 million dollar diamond heist, her safe new world no longer exists and she must decide, who to trust and if she's really Laine or Elaine.

Throw in a romance with the sexy insurance detective,Max Gannon, an all-evil-all-the-time bad guy, and some safe sidekicks, and you have the first part of the story.

The second half, is set in 2059 where life is pretty much the same, except for the frequent mention of 'links and people going "off-planet". A quarter share of the diamonds was never recovered from the half-century old theft, and when Shannon Gannon, the granddaughter of Laine and Max Gannon (awww...they stayed together!) writes a book about her grandparents and the diamonds, someone seems to think Shannon, herself, must have the lost diamonds and murders the woman house-sitting for her. When another murder connects the two, detective Eve Dallas sets out to find the murderer, and perhaps the diamonds as well.

I don't know if it was the two-book-in-one that didn't fit, but both stories seemed rushed, simplified, and predictable. I was hoping for something easy....light...quick, and it was, but I was also hoping for something good, which, unfortunately, I can't say that this was. Sorry Roberts/Robb. You didn't gain a new fan.

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