One Way Or Another

Elizabeth Adler's latest, One Way Or Another (#519) is a classic, old-fashioned suspense novel told from several points of view.  It mixes a damsel in distress with a young, handsome hero, an isolated and fearsome house on the marshes, and an unscrupulous villain of unimaginable wealth.  The difference here is that Ms. Adler has tweaked the formula so that events don't fall out the way the reader necessarily expects.

Marco Polo Mahoney, a successful portrait artist, is enjoying the last few hours of a needed break in his schedule drinking at the friendly neighborhood bar at his vacation hideaway on the Turkish coast. He notices a huge sleek yacht motoring out of the harbor. As he watches it, a young woman with a cloud of wavy red hair runs onto the deck.  He can clearly see the wound on the side of her head before she falls overboard.  As the ship continues to sail away, Marco launches his rubber dinghy from the beach in an attempt to find the young woman.  She never surfaces, but Marco becomes obsessed with the incident.  His girlfriend Martha Patron wants to believe him, but no one else saw anything unusual. 

Meanwhile, the young woman has survived, but Angie certainly hasn't been rescued.  In fact, now Marco and Martha too are all pulled into a web of deceit and danger as the master spider pulls the threads.  Can it end well for anyone?

I remember growing up reading suspense novels like this and loving them.  It's always gratifying to come across a writer who can deliver that familiar and satisfying type of escapist reading.  Thank you, Ms. Adler!