"Exciting police procedural romance"

Atlanta Police department Homicide Special Crimes Unit (HSCU) is looking to stop apparently two serial killers working in tangent targeting Perimeter's exotic dancers. HSCU Detective Jim Hennicut recommends to his boss Captain Howard Booker that they ask for "Princess Grace" as he affectionately calls Detective Jess Brubaker to go undercover as she meets the physical requirement of the killer. Jess reluctantly agrees because this might be the break for her to learn what happened to her stripper twin sister Ginny, who thirteen years ago vanished without a trace.

Because of regional politics including the FBI, the task force consists of Jess, Jim, his partner, and a martial arts psychic who is not a cop. Jim's friend former Ranger Hank Kamien agrees to help. He and Jess enter the sordid realm of exotic dancing and not long afterward a killer targets the female cop. However, trying to hide their attraction from one another becomes almost as difficult as playing cat and mouse with diabolically clever killers.

This is an exciting police procedural romance that takes off at a fabulous pace once Jess goes undercover and never slows down until the final confrontation with the killer. Though the clues as to the culprit's identity are there, fans will be shocked as Holly Lisle does a terrific job with misdirection. The romantic subplot between the undercover duo augments a fine suspense thriller that keeps the audience in a state of high tension throughout the whole tale.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 16, 2005

Summary

Ever since her sister Ginny disappeared thirteen years ago, Atlanta detective Jess Brubraker has been obsessed with discovering what happened. Now is her chance to do it—by disappearing into the same sordid nightworld that engulfed Ginny.

Jess isn't going alone. Her partner is Hank Kamien, a martial artist with a shattered past that left him with a rare psychic ability. He's looking for a reason to trust a woman again. With a single touch, he's found that reason in Jess. But their heated affair is igniting someone else's twisted passion...

A serial killer has also set his sights on Jess. He is an elusive figure—with the key to Ginny's disappearance. Victim by victim, Jess is following the clues. But the closer she gets, the sooner she realizes that the truth can be the most intimate and terrifying trap of them all...