Customer Reviews

Paloma:

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just finished reading Paloma by Linda Lavid - A Laurent & Dove Mystery and found it to be a on the edge of your seat type of mystery's. You will have problems reading this book because you won't want to stop from Chapter One through the final chapter number Thirty-One. The two main characters, Max Laurent and Paloma Dove seem to have a love hate relationship throughout the book and the reader is clued in why from the beginning till the very end. The author's skills in developing the characters gives you a perfect picture of how they look and how their personalities react. I enjoy a good mystery and Paloma by Linda Lavid is a good mystery, I feel confident you will enjoy it - so pick it up and start your readers juices.

Having three identities posing problems. On the other hand there are plenty of opportunities to travel - probably more than one would want. Once I started reading this book, it was difficult to stop reading. I highly recommend it, with a word of warning: don't open the book for the first time at 11 pm. It could disrupt your sleeping patterns.

A taut, can't-put-it-down story, with characters tightly drawn in a tale of larceny and lust--Enjoyable from start to finish!

When her daughter was just three years old, Nancy Smith drowned in Lake Michigan. Or did she? Agnes Lopez, aka Nancy Smith, had testified against a police officer, and for her safety, was placed in a witness protection program. When word reached Agnes/Nancy, that the officer had been paroled, she felt she must fake her own death in order to protect her daughter and her husband. She eventually resurfaced as Paloma Dove. Much to her dismay, she discovered that even "dead" and with a new name, she was not safe.

PALOMA by Linda A. Lavid is the story of Agnes/Nancy/Paloma as she seeks to find safety and also to catch a glimpse of her daughter who is now graduating from high school. Against her will, she connects with Max the FBI agent who helped her escape into the witness protection program. She has bad memories of him and would rather not reopen old wounds but he is persistent and determined to help her yet again. Max also still has feelings for her, no matter what she's calling herself today.

PALOMA is a fast-paced novel, filled with odd twists and turns that boggle the mind. Who is really trying to kill Paloma? Is it indeed the rogue cop who is now running a bakery in Buffalo, New York? Or is it someone more hidden and far more sinister? Maybe even her best friend Daisy? Paloma is stalked and several attempts are made on her life but she is indeed, a resourceful person and manages to outsmart the bad guys. Will she ever be able to live a normal life again? It is a fascinating story that grabs you from the first page. Paloma and her FBI helper are well-developed characters and are both rather irritating kinds of people. There is that urge to yell at them or even smack them around a bit to teach them some manners. In many ways, their rotten personalities make them more human, like somebody you've known in your own life. In all, PALOMA was an interesting book to read and even the characters you met for only a few moments were fleshed out enough so they became real.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

If a good mystery is your secret indulgence, consider "Paloma" a box of chocolate truffles. The chase begins on page one and the intrigue piles up faster than you can turn the pages: who? why?, what?, where? And while you always feel hot on the trail of the answers, the twists and turns and dead ends of this labyrinthine tale lead you on till the very end. There is, of course, the eponymous, attractive blonde in trouble.....or is she? Blonde, that is. She certainly has more than her share of problems and, it seems, more than her share of resources too. One, that she'd rather forget, is the requisite private Dick who, naturally, has a bad habit of tripping all over his. That being said, Lavid lifts this jaunt out of cliché by standing stereotypes on their head. The nexus of action takes place in the very un-james- bondian locale of Buffalo, N.Y. (Who knew that the Public Library could be so exiting? ) Likewise, the steamy push/pull sexual tension, dare I say romantic love, is between a sadder but wiser "woman of a certain age" and a tired, F.B.I. retiree. (yes, middle-age sex can rock your world!) And, finally, not only is Paloma that rare creature in literature, a strong, sexy, smart, older woman, she is also a Latina who peppers her dialogue with an easy, natural flow between Spanish and English. Refreshing.