Caught in the Shadows, by C. A. Haddad
Light reading
(Review posted 3 Jun 2005 17:26:10)

Did the heroine's mother really kill her stepfather? Why did she defend herself so feebly at her trial, all those years ago? How did the stepfather's first wife die? Will the heroine marry the ambitious but good-hearted lawyer, or the wealthy romantic artist? And why is one of the minor characters named "Jelly Melon"?

We don't find out the answer to that last one (I suspect it's some in-joke by the author, myself), but we do find out most of the others. I suspected The Truth a few chapters before the Revelation, and my suspicion was right, but that's the kind of book it is; comfortable and non-threatening, nothing wildly other than expected.

(One thing that struck me professionally: I don't think there are really research companies operating in the open that routinely break into companies and databases over the Internet in the ordinary course of finding out stuff for their clients. And it wasn't an important plot element anyway. But then neither was "Jelly Melon".)

A perfectly acceptable beach or airplane book, if there's nothing better to hand. (A case could certainly be made that there are enough really excellent books out there, even for times when you want to run your brain on idle, that it's never worthwhile reading this kind of book. But I'm not drill-sergeant enough to make, or to take very seriously, that case.)