The Middle Sin

. Trish Jackson has disappeared and CEO Marcus Sloan wants her found. Cleopatra Aphrodite North - Cleo - is the Private Investigator he hires to find her. The personal assistant to Marcus Sloan, Diane Walker, has some of the answers and a lot of jealousy. What makes a young office employee especially important that Sloan will spare no cost in finding her intensifies Diane Walker's resentment. The significance of Trish's disappearance is Sloan Enterprise refits retired military ships to cargo ships that carry tons of equipment around the world and the database to Top Secret Defense Department Afloat Prepositions Program with the engineering specifications and route has been breached; this particular ship's cargo is comprised of high level weaponry. The database is protected by a DNA key that only Marcus Sloan knows; normally a person will use their own DNA, but Sloan has an identical twin, so the DNA used is from someone no longer alive. Intriguing, isn't it. It gets better. Major Jack Donovan enters the picture. This is the lover Cleo has never forgotten. They nearly died in a South American jungle during their only military work together, and sparks as well as bullets flew then. She worked with him in THE FIRST MISTAKE and there were the promises to keep in touch, but that was months ago and he hasn't called her. In this second book of the Cleo North trilogy, Merline Lovelace continues with the cast of characters she introduced in book one and brings in more new ones. This is particularly endearing to me as it adds reality to these "people". Lovelace created an excellent novel; though it is the second in the trilogy, each of her books stand alone with no dangling unanswered questions. Enjoy all three. It took me just a few days to absorb nearly 1000 pages -truly page turners. Victoria Tarrani

In Charleston, CEO of Sloan Enterprises, Marcus Sloan hires Dallas-based private investigator Cleo North to look into the disappearance of a young office assistant, Trish Jackson. Marcus' personal assistant Diane Walker knows that he met Cleo a few months ago on a case involving his twin and though she turned out to be an excellent sleuth, he probably wants to bed her too. Cleo, a former Air Force Office of Special Investigations Agent, arrives in town and begins immediately trailing Trish's path to include Weight Watchers where she learns the woman might be pregnant. The next day Air Force Office of Special Investigations Agent Jack Donovan arrives at Sloan Enterprises to interview Marcus, whose prime customer is the military. Jack and Cleo have been lovers whenever the time and place converge. Jack asks Marcus when he last accessed the DNA signature Top Secret Defense Department Afloat Prepositions Program; Marcus responds several weeks ago; Jack states yesterday. Someone perhaps Trish has used Marcus' DNA to attain access and perhaps gained a schematic of a vessel carrying a potentially deadly weapon. Jack and Trish know their cases have converged and work closely to stop a potential calamity. THE MIDDLE SIN is an exhilarating military-industrial complex investigative tale that starts off at a leisure private detective tracking a missing person through the suburbs, but soon turns into a race against time thriller. Merline Lovelace smoothly transitions the story line while keeping the believability intact due to strong characters and building off of Cleo's first day inquiries. This is a five star billet with a sequel to follow starring the lead couple of this fine tale. Harriet Klausner