Pappano writes very meaty books in such a short number of pages. Hannah picks up Mick in a bar and takes him back to her place for a very hot night of sex. The next morning he discovers his soon-to-be-divorced wife has been murdered and he is the prime suspect. A warning to those who dislike adultery in their books, Mick has sex with Hannah knowing he is still technically married. He had not had sex with his wife in years and he had never cheated on her during that time. His wife on the other hand had cheated on him numerous times and was bitterly unhappy in their marriage.

Hannah also may cause problems for some readers. She owns and operaters a cheap dump of a motel and she basically prostitutes herself to sleep with Mick in order to get out from under the debt that is crippling her.

So here we have two imperfect characters. But their development to sympathetic characters works. It was obvious fairly early who the villian of the story was so the focus is totally on character development and the secondary characters. (Grade: B+) ( )