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    Review of IN TOO DEEP by Jayne Ann Krentz

    AN ARCANE SOCIETY NOVEL

    Putnam, December 2010

    Isabella Valdez is used to being on the run but she's run out of options. The man who set her up is relentless in tracking her down. Now she has to run to the place her grandmother told her might be safe--but her grandmother has been murdered so taking her advice is risky at best. In the tiny town of Scargill Cove, Isabella hooks up with Fallon Jones, a paranormal detective. The attraction is strong and mutual, but a woman on the run, a woman who's undocumented and who lives her life as a conspiracy theory would seem a bad match for an ultra-logical detective who only believes what he can prove.

    When Isabella insists on taking a job investigating a supposedly haunted house and discovers instead a serial killer and a mysterious psychic weapon, she and Fallon are drawn into the mystery of Scargill Cove. The plots extend far beyond the small California town. Someone is attempting to undermine the Jones family control over the Arcane Society--and Fallon detects the hand of the evil Nightshade conspiracy.

    Author Jayne Ann Krentz (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of romance by Krentz) mixes action, magic and romance in a well-written tale. Fallon is a classic romantic hero--rich, quiet, interested in just-the-facts, muscular, and recovering from a relationship that went bad despite every logical reason why it should have gone well. Isabella is his opposite, emotional, talky, and very much concerned with people. Yet the two find that they can work together, in fact have to work together, to uncover the threat to the Arcane Society.

    Krentz creates an intriguing world in the Arcane Society--a world that's ours with the magical held secret. The magical glasswork from Victorian times that forms the basis of the weaponized psychic threats makes for an intriguing premise. I would have liked to see Krentz do more with the romantic conflict--Isabella and Fallon seemed too happy with one another too early (and everyone was so happy for the two of them). To me, Isabella's decision to rush off to see what was going on with Walker without letting Fallon know seemed a 'too stupid to live' moment, required by the story rather than being consistent with the capable Isabella we'd seen earlier in the story.

    Despite some minor problems, IN TOO DEEP is an enjoyable quick read by a highly capable author.

    Three Stars

    Reviewed 3/25/2011

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