Where There's Smoke [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [MP3 CD]

Sandra Brown (Author), Natalie Ross (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2009

No one knows why Lara Mallory opens up her medical practice in the rowdy Texas town where Tackett Oil owns everything. But everyone remembers her role in the well-publicized scandal that caused the downfall of White House hopeful Senator Clark Tackett. Now the ironfisted matriarch of Tackett Oil intends to use her money and power to drive Lara out of town…especially when Lara meets Key, the hell-raising, youngest Tackett son. Before long, this determined woman doctor and brash, daring flyer find themselves hurtling on a soul-searing quest for the one secret that can destroy the Tackett empire, as rumors start flying that…Where There’s Smoke

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Readers who miss TV's Dallas will love the latest fast-paced romance from the author of the bestselling Mirror Image and French Silk. The Tackett oil clan of Eden Pass in East Texas, dominated by hard-driving widow Jody, managed to weather the sex-scandal disgrace of eldest son, Clark, a congressman, five years ago, and his recent death by drowning. Now Dr. Lara Mallory, the woman involved in Clark's downfall, moves into town to take over the retiring doctor's practice, which Clark bought before his death and willed to her. Lara was widowed after her diplomat husband and young daughter were killed in the Third World country to which they'd been posted in the scandal's wake. She is willing to endure the hatred of the influential Tacketts in order to meet Clark's black-sheep brother Key, whose skill as a pilot she requires in order to return to the country where her daughter's body still lies. Virile Key and gorgeous Lara butt egos while Key's plain sister Janellen finds love with an ex-con, and a cheerleader, daughter of the town slut, seeks romance with a handsome football player. Brown never lets up on melodramatic tension, twisting her plot and subplots until the unsuspected truth about Clark's scandal and death is revealed. 250,00 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

More frustrated passion, political scandal, and true Texas grit from Brown--this featuring the simmering love-hate bond between cool, beautiful Dr. Laura Mallory and the savage blue-eyed younger brother of the politician whose life she reputedly destroyed. The mystery is why Dr. Mallory set up practice in Eden Pass, Texas, in the first place. The focus of a national scandal when she was photographed years before being escorted in her nightgown from young Senator Clark Tackett's Virginia home by her husband, Ambassador Randall Porter, Mallory and Porter were summarily banished to the no-account Caribbean nation of Montesangre--where Porter and their baby daughter were murdered in a rebel ambush, while Tackett drowned in a Texas fishing accident that may have been a suicide. Mallory returned to the States to find her professional name permanently sullied and, in desperation, accepted the modest doctor's home and office that a remorseful Tackett had deeded her in his tiny hometown of Eden Pass. Predictably, Mallory is shunned by a community ruled by Tackett's mother, Jody, the iron-willed widowed dowager of Tackett Oil and Gas. But the beautiful doctor accepts the situation, living meekly off her savings until Tackett's reckless, handsome younger brother, Key, returns from the Middle East. Then she goes to work to convince Key--who is, naturally, torn between loathing the good doctor and wanting to tear off her clothes--to fly her to Montesangre to locate the site of her daughter's grave. Murder, terror, dark hints of concealed homosexuality, and the shocking resurrection of husband Porter follow as the backdrop to Mallory and Key's romance (``I don't want to be one of Key Tackett's women.'' ``Yes, you do. Tonight you do''), making for an unusually perilous and gruesome journey toward marriage and a house on the lake. More sophisticated than Brown's Texas! books, this mainstream romance could well expand her already enormous readership. (First printing of 250,000; Literary Guild Dual Selection for Spring) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• MP3 CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on MP3-CD; MP3 Una edition (November 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1441813691
• ISBN-13: 978-1441813695
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,895,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sandra Brown is the author of sixty New York Times bestsellers, including RAINWATER (2010), TOUGH CUSTOMER (2010), SMASH CUT (2009), SMOKE SCREEN (2008), PLAY DIRTY (2007), RICOCHET (2006), CHILL FACTOR (2005), WHITE HOT (2004), HELLO, DARKNESS (2003), THE CRUSH (2002), ENVY (2001), THE SWITCH (2000), THE ALIBI (1999), UNSPEAKABLE (1998) and FAT TUESDAY (1997), all of which have jumped onto the Times bestseller list in the number one to five spot.

Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published over seventy novels, bringing the number of copies of her books in print worldwide to upwards of eighty million. Her work has been translated into thirty-three languages.

A lifelong Texan, Sandra Brown was born in Waco, grew up in Fort Worth and attended Texas Christian University, majoring in English. Before embarking on her writing career, she worked as a model at the Dallas Apparel Mart, and in television, including weathercasting for WFAA-TV in Dallas, and feature reporting on the nationally syndicated program "PM Magazine."

She is much in demand as a speaker and guest television hostess. Her episode on truTV's "Murder by the Book" premiered the series in 2008 and she was one of the launch authors for Investigation Discovery's new series, "Hardcover Mysteries."

In 2009 Brown detoured from her thrillers to write Rainwater, a much acclaimed, powerfully moving story about honor and sacrifice during the Great Depression.

Brown recently was given an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Texas Christian University. She was named Thriller Master for 2008, the top award given by the International Thriller Writer's Association. Other awards and commendations include the 2007 Texas Medal of Arts Award for Literature and the Romance Writers of America's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Story With Unlikeable Characters, March 30, 2007

By 

Kara J. Jorges "Avid Reader" (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Where There's Smoke (Mass Market Paperback)

Dr. Lara Mallory is a fallen woman since a tabloid incident involving her and Senator Clark Tackett. She had been married at the time, and found anything but a forgiving attitude following the scandal. Finally, after Clark Tackett dies and leaves her a medical practice in his home town of Eden Pass, Texas, she decides to start over there. Besides, she believes the Tackett family owes her, and she's in town to collect a favor from Clark's younger brother, notorious playboy Key. Things are even tougher in Eden Pass, however, because Clark's powerful mother, Jody Tackett, has it out for her. Key seems to share his mother's low opinion, as does his mouse of a sister, Janellen, and the rest of the town. Key despises himself for falling for his dead brother's bimbo, but he can't seem to resist her. At the same time, 33-year-old Janellen is finally breaking out of her shell. When an ex-con named Bowie Cato comes in to Tackett Oil looking for a job, there's something compelling about him, and pretty soon Janellen starts restyling her hair and wearing make-up while she and Bowie sneak around to build their romance.

Sandra Brown can write one heck of a gripping thriller, but sometimes her books seem to have somewhat of a hard edge to them, and this is one of those books. It's as if the author was undergoing difficult personal turmoil at the time, and it came out in her writing. The judgmental attitude that pervades this novel seems appropriate for a small town like Eden Pass, but doesn't fit quite so well with the rest of the country, considering that infidelity did not sink the political aspirations of Bill Clinton, and notoriety has become a form of fame. She tosses words like whore, tramp, and trash around quite liberally, which made it difficult to warm to several of the characters. Perhaps it was done on purpose to underscore the hypocrisy inherent in these characters, but it was still somewhat distasteful.

The story was a good one, with a few good twists and turns along the way, but I also was not horribly fond of the ending. She created and fleshed out a couple of characters simply to kill them off at the end, and another rather innocuous character meets a bad end that didn't seem fitting to his actions throughout the book. Aside from those complaints, however, this is a pretty good novel with a compelling storyline. I just think I would have liked it better if everyone within its pages wasn't quite so mean.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ok, so I'm a guy who reads Sandra Brown, January 1, 2005

By 

RamblingLibrarian (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where There's Smoke (Mass Market Paperback)

She's not someone I'd normally read but I figured it might be an interesting experience. My female colleagues teased me about reading this. Someone told me this was "trashy stuff" (which I found out that it means it deserves a X-rated label of sorts -- I guess that's why it's so appealing!). Anyway, I told them that a good "salesman" (I'm a librarian) has to know all his wares, so...

The plot is nothing to shout about. I felt it was the typical "hero gets his girl" romance story, where all the women seem hungry for men, and the men (looks not withstanding) seem to get the women. Hmm... was this book really written for women?

It's entertaining read, really. So I gave it 4-stars. It doesn't set out to be intellectual stuff in the first place, and like any adult Romance novel, it has its fair share of love scenes. All in clean fun, and some love scenes are quite amusing 'cos it's so cliche. A good read for those who want to just lose themselves for a few hours on the train, or before bed.

I can now understand why it's popular among women readers. Heck, men should read such books once in a while.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a lot of smoke, but an interesting storyline, October 9, 2006

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Where There's Smoke (Mass Market Paperback)

After surviving the media onslaught from a notorious affair and subsequently losing her child and US Ambassador husband while caught up in a Central American military coup, Lara is willed a medical practice by the man everyone accuses her of ruining, Senator Clark Tackett, who took his own life.

His estranged brother Key is injured and requires the attention of a doctor and finds himself attracted to Lara, only to be warned off by his mother who cherishes the memory of her fallen son and vows to rid their Texas town of the harlot that caused his downfall. As Key grapples with his feelings for a woman he should hate, he tries to reconcile what he has heard about her verses what he has observed, and is not real interested in his brother's sloppy seconds. While she never denies the affair with Clark, she is not willing to discuss it either. When she asks for his help to retrieve her daughter's remains, Key reluctantly agrees and the two embark on a journey that will alter both their lives.

Savvy readers will be able to predict the path that the story will take, so for the most part, the suspense is light, though there are a couple twists that you won't see coming. The secondary romance between Key's spinster sister and a crusty ranch hand adds much needed heart to the story. While not a standout in Brown's lengthy body of work, "Smoke" is an interesting story, marking her transition from genre romance to romantic suspense.