Setting: Contemporary Key West, Florida
Sensuality: 7

Sonnie Giacano returns to Key West, Florida, eight months after her tennis-star husband was kidnapped and a devastating car crash stole Sonnie's unborn child and threatened her life. Scarred but determined, Sonnie feels compelled to regain her lost memory of that fateful night. Former police detective Chris Talon, now a private investigator, takes one look at the vulnerable Sonnie and knows he should refuse to help her. But fate has plans for Chris and Sonnie if they can only manage to unravel the complicated skein of secrets that conceal the truth about that horrendous night. Too many people, however, have a vested interest in keeping Sonnie uninformed and they'll stop at nothing, including murder, to ensure that she never learns the truth.

The heat and tropical flavor of Key West provide a colorful backdrop for the intricate plot that revolves around a refreshingly unique hero and heroine. Toss in an oily brother-in-law and an evil sister, along with a cast of intriguing secondary characters, and you've got a novel with enough suspense and romance to make your reading hours fly by. --Lois Faye Dyer


From Publishers Weekly
Steamy, atmospheric and fast-paced, Cameron's romantic suspense novel delivers on all fronts. Wealthy Key West doormat Sonnie Giacano can't remember exactly what happened eight months ago, the night her brash, tennis star husband, Frank, was apparently kidnapped, because she wrecked her car and miscarried her unborn child. Although Frank had just declared his intention to leave her, saying, "I do not find pregnant women sexy," the loss of her baby torments Sonnie. Emotionally scarred, she bartends at a local dive under the caring eyes of Roy Talon. Roy knows Sonnie's tragedy is tangled up with murderous deceptions, and, luckily for her, Roy's brother Chris is a disillusioned former NYPD police officer who retreated to Key West to escape his own nightmarish past. A reluctant Chris is dragged into investigating the case after Sonnie starts hearing voices singing a lullaby, "Hush little baby, don't you cry.... " When her husband's brother and her own sister show up on the island with a shrink in tow, it seems the family is conspiring to wangle control of Frank and Sonnie's considerable fortune. Whether the plot is to get Sonnie committed or killed, Chris fights for her life, now believing that Sonnie is both sane and the perfect woman for him. The mysterious voices persist as a fire at Sonnie's house reveals a body, hinting that Sonnie may be more unhinged than her new lover thinks she is. Cameron (French Quarter) makes Sonnie's sanity more questionable with every turn of the page, while depicting Chris's growing conviction that his emotions can't be denied. Subplots involving missing cad Frank, his Jag-driving look-alike brother and Sonnie's cruel sexpot sibling add strength to a solid plot. The elysian Key West setting is dramatized by the hurricane season's menace, but readers will most enjoy the good-guy/good-girl romance that blossoms amid an evil family's convoluted schemes. Author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Sonnie Giacano, frail and scarred from a car accident that claimed the life of her unborn daughter on the night she learned that her husband had been abducted by terrorists, returns to Key West to try to resolve the issues that plague her. A kind-hearted gay couple hire her to work in their bar and hook her up with Chris Talon, a gorgeous tough-guy ex-cop fleeing his own demons, who may be able to help her solve the mystery of that fateful night. Sonnie's brother-in-law and her sexy sister, with pet psychiatrist in tow, arrive to help, but could they have other motives? When Sonnie's house catches fire and a murdered man is found inside, the danger heats up, as do the blazing passions of Chris and Sonnie. Things start out slowly, but the pace accelerates to a heart-pounding finale. Readers who like Tami Hoag and Karen Robards will surely enjoy this romantic suspense novel by the author of French Quarter (1998). Diana Tixier Herald


From Kirkus Reviews
Cameron, who moved from romance paperbacks to romantic-suspense hardcovers with French Quarter (1998), changes her setting from New Orleans to Key West to tell the story of young Sonnie Keith Giacano, a tennis widow married to ever-away star Frank Giacano. The self-centered Frank (babies bore him), now in his 12th year on the circuit (he usually wipes out early at Wimbledon), has been away for two months without a single call to Sonnie. Shes in her fifth month of pregnancy when he phones her somewhat mysteriously, saying he'll be flying in. But when Frank's brother, Romano, says Frank has been kidnaped, perhaps by Italian terrorists, Sonnie apparently goes berserk (or actually has been set up for murder), drives into a wall, and suffers cuts and scarring, a miscarriage, and amnesia. She tries to regain her memory yet clearly suppresses something terrifying. Maybe a violent Key West hurricane will help jog her memory? She signs on ex-detective Chris Talon to find out whether she's a wife or a widow. Despite rather endless arguing between them, in large part because Sonnie feels she's lost her mind and cant be understood by anyone, the two grow cozy while trying to discover what happened to Frank, with a backdrop of evocatively depicted Key West haunts. Cameron keeps the suspense fairly high, but one feels the romance writer spinning and spinning out the scenes after the plot starts moving. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


About the Author
Stella Cameron is the New York Times/USAToday/Washington Post best-selling, award-winning author of sixty historical and contemporary novels and novellas. Each of her single-title releases has appeared on the WALDENBOOKS mass market, and romance lists, and on the BARNES AND NOBLE list. Stella has won the ROMANTIC TIMES Career Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense and the ROMANTIC TIMES best Romantic Suspense of the Year Award. She has been a RITA finalist, and is the recipient of the Pacific Northwest Writers' Association Achievement Award for distinguished professional achievement and for enhancing the stature of the Northwest literary community. Current titles include 7B, the third book in the 1820s Mayfair Square series (THE ORPHAN is the fourth book and due out in March, 2002), FRENCH QUARTER, KEY WEST, GLASS HOUSES, all contemporary romantic suspense novels, and the contemporary romantic drama, FINDING IAN. TELL ME WHY, contemporary romantic suspense, is due out in September (2001) and SLOW HEAT, a contemporary anthology is now on sale.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Stellar Stella

The course of love never ran smooth, but for the heroine of Stella Cameron's newest romantic thriller, it runs deep, down twisting corridors of memory. Key West, her latest, is sure to be one of the bestsellers of autumn -- and a perfect escape into suspense for all of us.

Author Stella Cameron got her start writing historical romances set in Regency England, and with her wonderfully drawn characters and highly evocative sense of place, she quickly built up a loyal following. With last year's release of French Quarter, Cameron made the leap from historical to contemporary and from romance to romantic suspense. Not surprisingly, her fan following made the leap right along with her and has been steadily increasing ever since. It's likely to make another geometric leap when readers get their hands on Key West.

As the title implies, the story takes place in Key West, and Cameron's trademark ability for bringing a place alive is well at work here -- if you've never been to Key West, you'll think you have by the time you finish the book. The story follows the plight of Sonnie Keith Giacano, who starts out as a five-months-pregnant tennis widow who hasn't heard from her philandering, on-the-circuit husband, Frank, in two months. When he does call, it triggers a series of tragic events that will change Frank and Sonnie's lives forever.

Eight months later, Sonnie's memory of the exact events is muddled at best, and she keeps having disturbing flashbacks. She begins to suspect that she is either losing her mind or the events that occurred that fateful night were not as accidental as they seemed. Determined to find some answers, she hooks up with a former police detective named Chris Talon. Chris has his own memories from which to escape, and he's reluctant at first to help Sonnie unearth her past. But soon, both their lives will change in ways they had not imagined -- and the thrills are just beginning.

With Key West, Cameron utilizes all the best elements from her previous works and spices things up a notch. The end result is stellar Stella -- the best of her best and a perfect mix of passion, suspense, and action-packed story.

Ready for your vacation to Key West?

—Beth Amos

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Tormented by nightmarish flashbacks, and stalked by a shadowy menace that pushes her to the edge of sanity, a woman--convinced that the events that killed her husband and caused her to lose her unborn child were not accidental--returns to Key West to find the truth.

FROM THE CRITICS

Jill M. Smith - Romantic Times

Stella Cameron does it again! Utilizing the unique characterizations and intricate plot lines she is known for, Ms. Cameron continues to live up to her reputation as one of the genre￯﾿ﾽs premier authors.

Publishers Weekly

Steamy, atmospheric and fast-paced, Cameron's romantic suspense novel delivers on all fronts. Wealthy Key West doormat Sonnie Giacano can't remember exactly what happened eight months ago, the night her brash, tennis star husband, Frank, was apparently kidnapped, because she wrecked her car and miscarried her unborn child. Although Frank had just declared his intention to leave her, saying, "I do not find pregnant women sexy," the loss of her baby torments Sonnie. Emotionally scarred, she bartends at a local dive under the caring eyes of Roy Talon. Roy knows Sonnie's tragedy is tangled up with murderous deceptions, and, luckily for her, Roy's brother Chris is a disillusioned former NYPD police officer who retreated to Key West to escape his own nightmarish past. A reluctant Chris is dragged into investigating the case after Sonnie starts hearing voices singing a lullaby, "Hush little baby, don't you cry.... " When her husband's brother and her own sister show up on the island with a shrink in tow, it seems the family is conspiring to wangle control of Frank and Sonnie's considerable fortune. Whether the plot is to get Sonnie committed or killed, Chris fights for her life, now believing that Sonnie is both sane and the perfect woman for him. The mysterious voices persist as a fire at Sonnie's house reveals a body, hinting that Sonnie may be more unhinged than her new lover thinks she is. Cameron (French Quarter) makes Sonnie's sanity more questionable with every turn of the page, while depicting Chris's growing conviction that his emotions can't be denied. Subplots involving missing cad Frank, his Jag-driving look-alike brother and Sonnie's cruel sexpot sibling add strength to a solid plot. The elysian Key West setting is dramatized by the hurricane season's menace, but readers will most enjoy the good-guy/good-girl romance that blossoms amid an evil family's convoluted schemes. Author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Cameron, who moved from romance paperbacks to romantic-suspense hardcovers with French Quarter (1998), changes her setting from New Orleans to Key West to tell the story of young Sonnie Keith Giacano, a tennis widow married to ever-away star Frank Giacano. The self-centered Frank (babies bore him), now in his 12th year on the circuit (he usually wipes out early at Wimbledon), has been away for two months without a single call to Sonnie. She's in her fifth month of pregnancy when he phones her somewhat mysteriously, saying he'll be flying in. But when Frank's brother, Romano, says Frank has been kidnaped, perhaps by Italian terrorists, Sonnie apparently goes berserk (or actually has been set up for murder), drives into a wall, and suffers cuts and scarring, a miscarriage, and amnesia. She tries to regain her memory yet clearly suppresses something terrifying. Maybe a violent Key West hurricane will help jog her memory? She signs on ex-detective Chris Talon to find out whether she's a wife or a widow. Despite rather endless arguing between them, in large part because Sonnie feels she's lost her mind and can't be understood by anyone, the two grow cozy while trying to discover what happened to Frank, with a backdrop of evocatively depicted Key West haunts. Cameron keeps the suspense fairly high, but one feels the romance writer spinning and spinning out the scenes after the plot starts moving.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

If you enjoy Tami Hoag and Linda Howard, you'll love Stella Cameron! — Susan Elizabeth Phillips