The Crush

When Dr. Rennie Newton's jury duty on a case involving a contract killer ends in an acquittal for Ricky Lozada, her carefully composed and very private life begins to unravel. First, someone breaks into her house to leave her an anonymous dozen red roses. Then her colleague and one-time rival for the chief of surgery job is murdered in the parking lot of her hospital, which makes her a prime suspect, especially when the police learn that she's killed a man once before. None of that stops Detective Wick Threadgill from falling in love with her; unlike his partner, he's sure that Lozada, not Rennie, is behind Howell's murder. And it soon becomes clear that the killer is so obsessed with Rennie that he'll do anything to have her--including killing again. Brown, master of the romantic mystery, goes into darker territory here, but she handles it with her usual deftness and turns in a well-paced if not particularly heart-stopping thriller with the requisite happy ending for Rennie and Wick. --Jane Adams