by Anne Stuart
Hard
driving romance and suspense to the N-th degree
Publisher: Mira
(April 2007)
Ice Blue is a hard driving suspense
and romance set in the midst of a
global power struggle against the catastrophic plans of delusional
religious cult leader surrounded by New Age enthusiasts and the best
scientific minds the Cold War could provide. A professional Japanese
operative is ordered to obtain an art relic and then kill his hostage
but surprising twists and unfolding details repeatedly derail the
completion of those orders. Romantic suspense fills every scene of Ice
Blue to the N-th degree!
Museum curator and Asian art scholar Summer Hawthorne treasures the
blue ceramic bowl as a gift from her beloved Japanese nanny. Summer
values her childhood memories of eating cookies from it over its
current high monetary value. When her quirky mother Lianne joins The
True Realization Fellowship, a Japanese religious cult headed by the
albino Shirosama, Summer knows that if her mother had her way, her
beloved bowl will be only one more family heirloom that increases the
coffers of this strange cult.
When Takashi O'Brien ("Taka") saves Summer from Shirosama's
followers and a certain death, she does not know whether to trust him
or fear him. He may have temporarily saved the bowl from the True
Realization but only so that he could take it. If the look in his eyes
did not scare her, his tattoo does. Taka belongs to the Yakuza (the
Japanese Mafia). She has already seen him kill more than once to
achieve his objective and his plans for her are no secret. Even more
disturbing is the use to which this bowl will be put once possession is
attained. The macabre and delusional visions of his Holiness Shirosama
are far more deadly than the sarin gas attacks of the Tokyo subways by
the Aum Shinrikyo cult and or the Jonestown mass suicide "The People's
Temple" led by the Reverend Jim Jones.
The reader knows every cruel thought and mission detail as it
unfolds --- and still the page-turning suspense builds until the very
last line. Despite her hostage situation, Summer is an unusual
heroine-victim --- weak, strong, intelligent, feminine, bruised from
the past endowed with a quirky sense of humor. The unusual pairing of
the family rejected half-breed Yakuza operative and the sensitive
museum curator who thinks of herself as unattractive electrifies the
suspense. The romance is hard, somewhat cruel yet soul-healing and even
tender at moments, but most of all unforgettable. The family
relationships of the main characters and the secondary characters are
complex and deepen the psychological motivations and histories of Taka
and Summer. Ice Blue will
sear these two characters and their struggle
into the reader's memory long after the book is closed.
Reviewed by Merrimon,
Merrimon Book Reviews
