"The best under the JAK banner this decade"

Jayne Ann Krentz is back dancing on the high wire in the center ring! This is typical JAK at her very best, but at the same time just a wee bit different from her usual range, pushing over more into her Jayne Castle territory. With Paranormal Romance hitting big numbers this one should do well for her.

It's a very clever story, a bit more intricate than some JAK's of late. Isabel Wright works at the Belvedere Center for Sleep Research at in "iffy" job of dream analyzer. She is a Level Five dreams, and has a preternatural talent of being able to tell everyone what their dreams mean. She is happy with her steady job and finally has money to splurge on things to change her life. She sees herself as a woman with so much inside, but fears the rest of the world dismisses her as humdrum. She wants a man to notice her, think she is a vivacious woman with a lot of risk and daring to her character. She has a new wardrobe, and a haircut Mr. Nicholas her hairdresser assures her makes her sexy. But with an ex-boyfriend still calling her Izzy and says her haircut is "cute", she fears her dreams - real dreams may never come true. Worse, her cushy job is on the line. Her boss the elder Dr. Belvedere has just died, and the Dr. Belvedere the younger is determined to take the sleep clinic into commercial application. Isabel sees this as a violation of the decades of solid research done by his father. When she resists his plans, he fires her, little understanding that Isabel is the key to the whole company and it's survival. Isabel sees this is a chance to go freelance, but Belvedere, once he realizes his stupidity, is determined to lure her back to the firm before it goes belly up.

Ellis Cuttler is a freelance operative for a Black Ops firm called Frey-Salter - a highly classified government agency - that works in the shadows. One of their workers Katherine Ralston has been murdered and Ellis blames himself. Though working on his own, he still accepts work for Frey-Salter and blames himself for Katherine's death. He felt he should've seen it coming, because he is not your usual operative. He uses his dreams to "manhunt". He goes to a scene of a crime, stores all the images and facts and later uses his Level Five dreaming to analyze the information - actually walking through the murders as if he were there.

Ellis is a patient of Isabel's and she is concerned about the dreams of violence she analyzes for him, fearing they are real memories. She knows him as patient #2. He's met him in his dreams and calls her "tango dancer" in his mind. Finally, a man who sees the "real" Isabel, the exciting, daring Isabel waiting to be set free! Isabel and Ellis, unknowing about the other, have actually been sharing dreams for months, so when he brings Isabel into his operation to find Katherine's murderer, to help analyze his dreams, their attraction is hot and instantaneous. However, by using Isabel to catch a killer, he's now made her a target, too.

This is JAK at her top form. The characters are quirky, warm, sexy and will steal your heart. One of the best under the JAK name this decade. Absolutely divine!

Reviewed by DeborahAnne MacGillivray
Posted November 29, 2004

Summary

A red scarf. A roller coaster. A tidal wave of blood...

Isabel Wright spends her days at the Belvedere Center for Sleep Research analyzing the dreams of others. Dr. Martin Belvedere, a pioneer in the field, recognized her unique talent for what he calls Level Five lucid dreaming. It's satisfying, lucrative work, but it can be emotionally draining. Especially when one of her anonymous subjects, known only as Client Number Two, captures her imagination through his compelling dream narratives. Secretly, she thinks of him as "Dream Man."

His real name is Ellis Cutler. A loner who's learned not to let anyone get too close, he works for a highly classified government agency with an interest in the potential value of lucid dreaming. And he's just been ordered by his boss to make contact with Isabel, who's been fired after the sudden death of Dr. Belvedere. Heading to California, he pushes his fantasies out of his mind, determined to maintain a professional relationship with the woman who reads his dreams, the mysterious figure he has come to think of as "Tango Dancer."

But when they meet in the flesh, the dream becomes real enough to touch. And a waking nightmare begins—when a suspicious hit-and-run leads them into a perilous web of passion, betrayal, and murder, and forces them to walk the razor-think line between dreams and reality.