Veterinarian Alyn Blum-Jones's late mother was disinherited long before Alyn was born. Cut off from the Blum family, Alyn has never even met her aunt, Jacqueline Blum, so she's surprised to receive a letter from her asking Alyn to visit the family estate. When she discovers that her wealthy aunt is missing, Alyn is determined to help in any way that she can, although when she arrives at the Maryland estate she instantly walks into more trouble than she can handle. The police believe that Jacqueline Blum was murdered, and their prime suspect is Alyn. Jacqueline, Alyn discovers, has recently changed her will and life insurance policy to name Alyn, her only living relative, as the sole beneficiary. But Alyn has an even bigger problem, and his name is Peter Youngblood. Tall, dark, and dangerous, he's been hired by the insurance company to find out what really happened to Jacqueline Blum. Is Peter a savior or an assassin? Can Alyn trust him when she discovers that he has a secret agenda that might threaten her very life? And when she finds herself falling in love with him, can she find the courage to trust the one man who can destroy her? Thanks to complex characters and an expertly paced plot, In the Dark reads like a superb "whodunit" circa 1950. When the prime suspects start dropping like flies, readers will have to rethink their theories about what really happened to Jacqueline Blum. --Lois Faye Dyer

From Publishers Weekly
Dark and stormy nights abound in McKinney's (A Man to Slay Dragons) latest novel of romance and suspense. From a disinherited branch of the mega-rich Blum family, practical Boston veterinarian Alyn Blum-Jones is shocked to read of the disappearance of her only living relative, her heiress aunt Jacqueline Blum, the day before Alyn is to meet her for the first time. Alyn travels to her aunt's Maryland estate, where she meets Peter Youngblood, the tough ex-cop hired by Masterlife Insurance to investigate the case. From Peter, Alyn learns she is her aunt's chief beneficiary and the insurance company's chief suspect. Peter and Alyn search for Jacqueline in Maryland horse country and New York City, encountering along the way a host of oily stable managers and oilier foreign butlers, nefarious nightclub owners, unprincipled corporate bosses, thick plots, kinky outfits and dead bodies?all of which leaves Alyn plenty of time to reckon with her own past as well as with the bearish, passionate Youngblood. Romance outweighs suspense in this easily solvable mystery, which mixes language from popular movies, cheap fiction and expensive stores to offer a rarely surprising but also rarely dull taste of the dark side of inherited wealth, unexpected love and the insurance business. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Jacqueline Blum, heiress to a family fortune, disappears days before she is supposed to meet her niece, Alyn, for the first time. Alyn, owner of a thriving veterinary practice, is aware of her late mother's disinheritance and curious about the aunt she has read so much about in the tabloids. When she arrives late at night at the family estate, however, she's confronted by Peter, a surly, boxer-clad man who believes she is behind her aunt's disappearance and suspected murder. Alyn's quest to discover the truth about Jacqueline is complicated by the discovery of her aunt's past lovers, a secret safety deposit box, and a $10 million dollar scam. Everyone, it seems, had a reason to kill Jacqueline except Peter, who works for a major insurance company and knows that the only good body is one that's never found. Alyn won't stop searching until she finds out what exactly happened to her aunt, or until Peter stops her. McKinney's latest suspense romance will without doubt appeal to Tami Hoag and Nora Roberts fans. Melanie Duncan

From Kirkus Reviews
Another silly tale from McKinney (Gentle From the Night, 1997, etc.),again about how love can save you from the dark side. With her aunt Jacqueline missing, Alyn Blum-Jones could be the ``last of the Blums'' and the new heiress to the enormous Blum Toasties fortune. Jacqueline, who lived at Blumfield, her fabulous Maryland estate, with two sleazy middle-aged lovers, one bizarre housekeeper, an army of liveried workers, and a bedroom lined with Harlequin romances, is presumed deadand dead she is, buried in the concrete of her new stable. Jacqueline's insurance company, though, a nasty slice of corporate America, doesn't have to pay Alyn a $20 million life-insurance policy unless her aunt's body is found. And just to make sure that Alyn never sees a cent, the company sends troubleshooter Peter Youngblood to Blumfield to oversee their business. Youngblood, an ex-cop with a skull tattooed on his hard-muscled shoulder, has seen (and done) it all. Once an idealistic law-enforcement officer, hes now a cold, jaded sexy guy who appears in a wardrobe of ever-changing boxer shorts and tight jeans. It's hard for him to believe that Alyn, a sweet veterinarian from Quincy, Mass., is the innocent she appears to be. And harder still to believe she intends to give her billion-dollar inheritance to a variety of worthy charities. As Alyn and Youngblood spar and struggle with their unwanted mutual attraction, they search for Jacqueline's killer (never truly a mystery) and for the person who murdered her two ex-lovers. Together, the couple try to find a way to save Alyn from the porn king who turns out to be the father who deserted her before she was bornand to prove Jacqueline's death by presenting the police with her lower mandible, left by the killer in a safe-deposit box at a Chase branch in Manhattan. Way over the top and unintentionally amusingwhich may be the only reasons to read it. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Alyn travels to the family estate to find out why her heiress aunt has mysteriously disappeared. She meets a freelance investigator whose piercing eyes seem to hold accusation. As he guides her through New York City's underbelly to find answers, she is hopelessly drawn to him. But can she trust him?

SYNOPSIS

Alyn Blum-Jones has never known much about the Blum half of her family, given that her mother was cut off from them years before Alyn was even born. But when Alyn gets a letter from her Aunt Jacqueline, the surprises are just beginning. Visiting the Blum property, Alyn discovers that Jacqueline is missing, and so Meagan McKinney's romantic suspense novel, In the Dark, zooms into overdrive.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kirkus Reviews

Another silly tale from McKinney (Gentle From the Night, 1997, etc.),again about how love can save you from the dark side.