Unmanned-Lois Greiman

Unmanned
Lois Greiman
Dell, Nov 2007, $6.99
ISBN: 9780440243625

After almost being killed by two different men, Los Angeles psychologist Dr. Christina McMullan is obsessed with safety; she always sets her alarm system and is extremely wary of strangers especially males. When she meets Will Swanson at a gas station, they talk while he cleans her windshield. He explains he is a carpenter and she says she needs a new garage before she drives away. When he appears at her home, he explains her dimwitted secretary gave him her address; although not frightened, Christina still talks with Will outside not allowing him into her house.

Suddenly, a shot rings out and Will falls to the ground dead. Christina’s boyfriend LAPD Detective Rivera arrives at the homicide scene in an official capacity. During his investigation he learns that Will is an alias and that Texas law enforcement officials believe he was a hit man. Christina does not have a clue as to who or why someone wants to kill her, but when her brother Pete comes to town, she thinks that the culprit might have been after her sibling, who looks somewhat like Will did. From no suspects there is instantly a myriad of individuals with motives as Pete owes $20,000 in gambling debts to those who accept remittance one cold way or another.

The dynamo heroine leaps from or is pushed into one dangerous incident after another, but she keeps her cools so she can react to avoid physical injury or death. The romantic interludes between the cop and the shrink are scorching even though they do nothing more than kiss, talk or leer. However, the key to this terrific often amusing whodunit is that the readers are unsure who the killer is and the motive though it bears repeating that the heroine’s Peter Pan complex brother seems the most likely cause.

Harriet Klausner