Reviewed by Marina W.
March 20, 2005
"Who would have ever thought that a simple bump into someone would lead to such passion?"
Regan Hamilton Madison, hotel heiress, has suddenly become the target of a psychopath for a reason unknown to her. Regan and her friends, Cordie and Sophie, decide they're going to investigate a woman's suicide on their own after the police are absolutely no help at all. They begin to probe into their case by taking turns going to the police station to question the detective in charge--who is a complete pig. Regan is the last to do this before they strike out on their own to solve the case.
The three decide to attend a seminar being given by Dr. Sheilds, the ultimate in self help, to determine how to get close to him enough to get information on their case. An exercise they do at the seminar is to make a murder list of all the people they think would be better off dead rather than being in their lives. This is the start of the madness and the beginning of the game for this psychopath.
Alec Buchannon, a detecive for the police department where the girls start their investigation at, is undercover on a drug case . When his case goes sour and after a brutal chewing out from his Lieutenant, he makes his final decision to move on for good and join the F.B.I. He has no idea that an accidental bump into the right person would change his life for the better. As Regan is leaving the station on the girl's last attempt to retrieve information from the police, she bumps into Alec.
It's a week later before they meet again.
As fate would have it, the night of the seminar Regan has an accident and hurts her knee. She has surgery, and a week later when she returns to her position at the hotel the torture begins. As she opens her e-mails and starts replying to them, suddenly her senses are assaulted by an awful picture of a dead body. She thinks it's a cruel joke until she recognizes the body.
When she contacts the police, they send a tech and two detectives. Alec recognizes her right off the bat and hopes she doesn't remember him because he had stunk so bad and looked horrible the day they met, not to mention that all the time after their encounter he'd been thinking she was a nut. She does remember him.
It isn't until they tell her the picture is real that it hits home that something is wrong. And when they recieve a fax with her murder list attached to it, and that says she owes whoever the psychopath is for taking care of her problems, that they know there's a big problem...and that Regan is going to need protection.
Alec's assigned body guard duty and isn't allowed to actively participate in the case as punishment for resigning from the department. Things really start to pick up as Regan recieves more and more faxes and more people turn up dead. All the while she's falling for Alec ,and he is trying to control himself around her because he knows he's leaving for Boston at the end of the assignment or when his three weeks are up.
Without fail neither one of them can help themselves after spending so much time together. All the while a psychotic person is stalking and plotting to kill her for things she has no control over.
Who would have ever thought that a simple bump into someone would lead to such passion? The writing of this book makes you wish that it is you who needs Alec's protection! Alec is absolutely bad boy handsome with the right amount of attitude. And Regan isn't the typical poor me damsel in distress. She puts up a fight when she needs to. I really loved this book. It's a definate keeper. The sex is hot and the story is great. I hated to see it end and I can't wait for the next one!
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Buy » Murder List by Julie Garwood
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Book Description for Murder List
There are few authors who can weave nail-biting thrills, edge-of-your-seat drama, and romantic suspense as masterfully as Julie Garwood. Now she ratchets up the tension with Murder List, in which evil is on the hunt– and proves to be methodically organized and chillingly successful.
When Chicago detective Alec Buchanan is offered a prime position with the FBI, it is the perfect opportunity to leave the Windy City and follow in his brothers’ footsteps to the top echelons of law enforcement. But first he must complete one last assignment (and one that he is not too happy about): acting as a glorified bodyguard to hotel heiress Regan Hamilton Madison. The gorgeous exec has become entangled in some potentially deadly business. Someone has e-mailed her a graphic crime-scene photo–and the victim is no stranger.
Regan suspects that the trouble started when she agreed to help a journalist friend expose a shady self-help guru who preys on lonely, vulnerable women. In fact, the smooth-as-an-oil-slick Dr. Lawrence Shields may be responsible for the death of one of his devotees, which was ruled a suicide. Hoping to find some damning evidence, Regan attends a Shields seminar.
At the gathering, the doctor persuades his guests to partake in an innocent little “cleansing” exercise. He asks them to make a list of the people who have hurt or deceived them over the years, posing the question: Would your world be a better place if these people ceased to exist? Treating the exercise as a game, Regan plays along. After ten minutes, Shields instructs the participants to bring their sheets of paper to the fireplace and throw them into the flames. But Regan misses this part of the program when she exits the room to take a call–and barely escapes a menacing individual in the parking lot.
The experience is all but forgotten–until the first person on Regan’s list turns up dead. Shock turns to horror when other bodies from the list start to surface, as a harrowing tango of desire and death is set into motion. Now brutal murders seem to stalk her every move–and a growing attraction to Alec may compromise her safety, while stirring up tender emotions she thought she could no longer feel. Yet as the danger intensifies and a serial killer circles ever closer, Regan must discover who has turned her private revenge fantasies into grisly reality.
