Title: Stalemate

Author: Iris Johansen

Genre: Thriller

Summary: Eve Duncan receives a request from Luis Montalvo to work on a reconstruction job, but she turns it down - twice.

And Montalvo is not a man who can take 'no' for an answer.

Eve Duncan finds herself surrounded by dangerous men and traps that plot to ensnare and kill her. Taking Montalvo's offer would mean leaving her lover, Joe Quinn, and walking straight into a potential crossfire between Montalvo and his rival, Diaz. However, it could also mean that she could gain valuable information on what she had been searching for all these years - to find out where her daughter Bonnie was buried when she was kidnapped and murdered so many years ago.

Opinion: For avid fans of Iris Johansen novels, this is definitely a novel you should pick up and read. If you've read some of her Eve Duncan forensics thriller novels before, you might notice a rather repetitive plot or storyline. Still, the simplicity of the whole novel draws me to it. I am a very simple reader, therefore, I head for books that are easy to read. (I have been drawn and quartered for my taste in books before.) Novels that have too intricate plots or too confusing betrayals tend to confuse me. So if you see a recommendation by rage-chan, you can be pretty sure the book can be easily understood. ^^

That said, I like how Iris Johansen chooses not to describe in full-blown detail the chemistry romance between Eve and Joe, her lover. Whenever it gets to the naughtier bits, she skips it and leaves it to the reader's imagination, which is fine by me. Hard-core people who want to read through sex in every detail, though, should look for a romance novel, not a thriller, and unfortunately I don't cover romance. As a thriller, this novel fits it comfortably, with a very slight twist in the end.

Enjoy! ~rage-chan

Rating: 4 out of 5.