"Fine romantic suspense"

The once beautiful and vibrant Meredith Spooner is dead and her closest confidant Leonora Hutton is cleaning out the deceased's apartment when Thomas Walker arrives. He informs Leonora that Meredith stole 1.5 million from the college alumni fund that his brother manages.

Leonora tries to ignore Thomas' threats to implicate her as an accomplice of Meredith if she fails to help him. However, Meredith eerily contacts Leonora, informing her where the loot is, but that the deceased worried about something she learned. Leonora offers to return the cash if Thomas helps her investigate Meredith's "accident". However, Leonora will soon hit the highest and lowest points of her life as she will find love and danger at about the same time.

Jayne Ann Krentz has written a fine romantic suspense novel starring two quirky lead characters that endear themselves to the audience. The fast-paced action works because the secondary cast adds the needed depth to turn this multi-faceted story line into a realistic endeavor. SMOKE IN MIRRORS is Ms. Krentz at her most romantic and suspenseful best.

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted December 2, 2001

Summary

Leo, if you are reading this, I'm dead.

A con artist and seductress, Meredith Spooner lived fast — and died young. Now it seems Meredith's last scam — embezzling more than a million dollars from a college endowment fund—is coming back to haunt Leonora Hutton. An e-mail has just arrived in which Meredith—in fear for her life—explains that the money is waiting for Leonora in an offshore account...and a safe-deposit key is on the way.

Leonora wants nothing to do with the tainted money. She's already been accused of being in on the theft by Thomas Walker—who, it seems, was a victim of Meredith's knack for both scams and seductions. Eager to prove him wrong, Leonora sets out to collect the cash and hand it over.

But she discovers two other items in the safe-deposit box. One is a book about Mirror House—a mansion filled with antique mirrors, where Meredith engineered her final deception. The other is a set of newspaper stories about a thirty-year-old murder that occurred there—unsolved to this day.

Now Leonora has an offer for Thomas Walker. She'll hand over the money—if he helps her figure out what's happening. Meredith had described Thomas Walker as "a man you can trust." But in a funhouse-mirror world of illusion and distortion, Leonora may be out of her league.