"A New Star in the Romantic Suspense Firmament"
THE DAMSEL IN THIS DRESS is the very promising debut novel
from Marianne Stillings. Stillings combines wonderful
characters with witty dialogue and a bang up mystery that
had me fooled right up to the final denouement. Warning!
Don't start this book at 10PM as I did, or you too will be
spending the night with Ms. Stillings. I literally
couldn't put the book down. Betsy Tremaine is the editor of the Port Henry Ledger and
part-time book reviewer. In her role of reviewer she has
neatly trashed and skewered J. Soldier McKennitt's 3 best
selling novels. McKennitt is a retired policeman, who is
still suffering from guilt over his partner's murder. He
fills his retirement by writing a successful series of
mystery novels. As he heads to a writer's conference he
hopes to meet Tremaine and give her a piece of his mind.
But, since this IS a romance he is immediatly taken aback
to discover that far from being the old crone he and his
brother Taylor had pictured (complete with warts) Betsy is
a beautiful young woman. Betsy and Soldier immediately strike sparks off each other
and their witty verbal battles are one of the true joys of
DAMSEL. I found myself rereading some of their verbal
interplay just for the sheer joy of it. Both
the 'Confucious Contest' and the Dick and Jane story had
me howling with laughter. But, while this is a very funny book and very much a
romance; Damsel also contains an exciting mystery that is
extremely well constructed. Betsy is being stalked and as the contacts with the
stalker escalate and bodies start to fall, she has to
accept that someone hates her enough to kill. But, who?
As Soldier helps her delve into the backgrounds of her
friends and co-workers, she has a hard time believing that
any of these 'nice' people is a killer. Betsy struggles with low self-esteem and when we meet her
self centered Mother one wonders how Betsy has overcome
her Mother's constant criticism to become the wonderful if
self-effacing person she is. I really liked Betsy and was
happy to see her blossom under Soldier's care. J. Soldier McKennitt is a very nice alpha hero. He is
sexy, funny, intelligent and extremely witty--what more
could one want in a man? Did I mention he is also
gorgeous? Soldier is the epitome of the best of romance
heroes and while the book was non-stop action Betsy and
Soldier never got lost in the shuffle. In fact Soldier and Betsy are both well grounded in their
worlds. They have families and friends and I really
enjoyed the verbal badinage between Taylor and Soldier.
Their dialogue truly sounded like men talking and the
gruff affection between them was very believable. I am
happy that this is a trilogy and that book 3 will be
Taylor and Betsy's Doctor friend Claire's story--they are
an intriguing pair. I also have to mention Piddles the wonderful hairless
Chihuahua. Piddles is a fun dog, who lives up to his
name, but he is not merely furniture--as the stalker's
first victim he never forgets who victimized him. Piddles
joins the Pantheon of great romance pets and I hope we
will see him again in the next installment of this trilogy. As I read THE DAMSEL IN THIS DRESS, I was favorably
reminded of an old favorite: Linda Howard's Mr. Perfect
which has a similar tone and wit--murder and wit are a
volatile mix and require a deft hand to pull off, which
Stillings does beautifully. Fans of Julie Garwood, Janet
Evanovich, Linda Howard and especially Jayne Ann Krentz
should love this book. The wit and depth of story telling--
no cardboard characters here, even the villain is
chillingly drawn and the snappy dialogue is just pure
fun. I am happy to find Stillings on her first book, cuts
down on the glomming that usually accompanies my finding a
wonderful new author! But, I will certainly be watching
for the next installment of this trilogy.
Reviewed by Linda Hurst
Posted August 11, 2004
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