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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A lively read! Very highly recommended, March 21, 2002
This review is from: What She Doesn't Know (Zebra Romantic Suspense) (Paperback)
Nineteen years ago, the Belle Rose massacre deprived a young girl of her mother, her aunt, a family friend, and left her near death. The deaths were called a double murder and suicide by law enforcement anxious to close a case that divided the entire town along racial lines. In the aftermath, fourteen year old Jolie Royale separated herself from her once beloved father because of her tortured memories of his adultery, which she witnessed just before stumbling upon the bodies of her family. His subsequent marriage less than a year after her mother's death led to Jolie going off to an expensive boarding school and refusing to ever visit home. Indeed, after nineteen years she only returns to her hometown for her father's funeral. She stays, following the reading of the will, only to exact her revenge on her stepmother Georgette, stepbrother Max, and half sister Mallory. Max Devereaux predicts trouble if Jolie comes home. When her presence puts pressure on his mother and sister, Max steps into the role of the proper southern gentleman caring for his women folk. But he never allows their attitudes to affect his growing attraction for Jolie. When the will names Jolie the inheritor of the family home Belle Rose, with a provision to allow Georgette and her children to remain in residence, Max becomes the peacemaker. It does not take him long, however, to become sympathetic to Jolie's determination to reopen the Belle Rose massacre case, or to rush to protect her when her life becomes threatened. Too bad she is adamantly opposed to exploring the growing passion between them. Beverly Barton's second romantic suspense novel for Zebra explores the tortured past of characters with deep psychological wounds in WHAT SHE DOESN'T KNOW. Demonstrating her characteristic flair, Barton's characters struggle with the past, with their well-deserved resentment, and with the power of love. Even when small developments are anticipated, Barton puts an unexpected spin on them. Secondary characters each conceal secrets, and their combined hidden motivations are incredibly intriguing. Further, Jolie's transformation from revengeful to truth seeking is especially convincing, and lends the novel terrific depth. Her determination to fight her feelings for Max likewise lends the novel a nice tension, especially since he is equally determined to overcome her reticence. Further, the unexpected plot developments move the story along a terrific clip, deftly holding the reader's interest. Readers who enjoy well developed characters and intrigue penned with a lively hand will be quite satisfied. Very highly recommended.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Plenty of twists & turns to keep you guessing, February 14, 2006
This review is from: What She Doesn't Know (Zebra Romantic Suspense) (Paperback)
Shot and left for dead when she was 14, Jolie Royale was the only survivor in a massacre at her family estate, Belle Rose. She immediately left when her father turned around and married his mistress Georgette and returns for the reading of his will after a more than 20 year absence. Her animosity towards Georgette is warranted - the night her mother was murdered, the two were having sex on the estate.
Knowing that the estate belonged to her murdered mother, Jolie has no doubts that the home will be left to her - she is just itching to send her father's second family packing. Complicating matters is the manner with which her father bequeathed the estate - his new family is not go be ousted, and her growing attraction to bad boy Max Devereaux, who she always had a crush on, and he is now her step brother.
When she joins forces with the nephew of the man accused of the murder-suicide (which was never fully investigated; three bodies, one of them a black male - you do the math), someone is taking great pains to thwart their investigation, and will stop at nothing including attempted murder to keep them from pursuing the truth. Max goes into full protection mode, as his feelings for his bitter step-sister are becoming far from brotherly.
Author Barton provides equal parts tension, suspense, and romance to tell the contemporary gothic mystery with plenty of plot twits to keep you guessing.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This book reminds me of "After the Night" by Linda Howard, June 30, 2002
This review is from: What She Doesn't Know (Zebra Romantic Suspense) (Paperback)
There are so many similarties that it's hard not to compaire the two. This book isn't at the level that "After the Night" but if you loved the book as I did then this one is for you. Twenty years ago Jolie Royale came home and found her aunt and mother lying dead. While looking over her mother's dead body she is also shot several times. Jolie doesn't remember who the killer was and Lemar (The man who attents to her families lawn) is accussed of the murder. Fast forward twenty years later, Jolie's father has died and it time she has come back home. Jolie has mixed feelings about the whole thing, but she wants to put the whole thing behind her and move on. But to do that she has to face her stepmother whom her father married a year after her mother's death and her stepbrother Max whom she once had a school girl crush but can no longer stand. Soon things change and Jolie figures that it is now time to find out who really killed her mother, aunt and lemar with Max's help. But unearthing the old murder leads to a whole lot of trouble, while the real killer waiting for Jolie to remember.
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