Lawman (Hqn Romance) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Diana Palmer (Author)
Key Phrases: jaw tautened, redheaded doctor, Miss Turner, San Antonio, Palo Verde (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Palmer mixes aw-shucks small-town romance with cookie-cutter crime drama, but still scores points with a slowly sizzling lead relationship. Texas FBI agent Garon Greer is 36; having lost his wife to cancer 10 years earlier, he has recently moved from San Antonio, Tex., to nearby Jacobsville, where his not-quite-estranged brother Cash (from Palmer's Lawless) is police chief. The angelic Grace Carver, 24 and mourning the death of her grandmother, is the still-recovering victim of a childhood sexual assault, and Garon's next-door neighbor. As Garon tracks a serial killer who strangles his child victims with a red ribbon, Garon avoids Grace-who may in fact may hold the key to catching the killer. Romance fans will savor Grace's indomitable spirit and quiet power over Garon, though mystery readers may find the resolution a foregone conclusion.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Harboring horrible secrets, Grace is in self-imposed exile, living with her ailing grandmother in Jacobsville, Texas. After his pregnant wife dies of cancer, FBI agent Garon leaves San Antonio for ranch life in Jacobsville, where his once-estranged brother Cash, from Lawless (2003), is chief of police. When Grace'sgrandmother dies, Garon, who has secrets of his own, offers comfort and friendship to Grace, then is shocked when the investigation into the Red Ribbon Serial Killer, a child murderer, leads straight to Grace. Palmer's unforgettable characters include Grace's grandmother ("as loving as a python"), Garon's bossy housekeeper, and Garon's feminist secretary. The popular Palmer has penned another winning novel, a perfect blend of romance and suspense, and her fans will be delighted to see characters from her other books pop in like old friends. Shelley Mosley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: HQN Books (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373772831
• ISBN-13: 978-0373772834
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #319,115 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Idiotic and Cruel Hero Ruins this Diana Palmer book, June 10, 2007

By	loonigrrl (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lawman (STP - Mira) (Hardcover)

Somethings you can almost always count on in a Diana Palmer book: 1) the heroine is naive and innocent and usually virginal 2)the heroine is at least 10 but more like 15 years younger than the hero 3) the hero treats her like dirt and 4) the heroine loves him anyway. Unfortunately, Diana Palmer's latest, Lawman, doesn't break from the author's pretty standard formula.

Grace Carver (the last name must be a sick joke) survived a horrifying assault when she was only 12 years old. Grace's grandmother, a truly mean and vicious woman, raised her and let Grace know quite clearly how much she didn't love her. Despite this, Grace was devoted to her in the extreme before the old woman died. Grace herself is almost sickeningly sweet and self sacrificing. In fact, she seems to make a habit of loving people who treat her terribly.

FBI agent Garon Grier moves to town and begins working on a serial child rapist and murder mystery that has remained unsolved for over ten years. Garon meets his neighbor Grace quickly after his arrival. He tries to persuade himself that he isn't interested in this "frumpy" young girl, but her goodness and sweetness eventually win him over- after he is continuously rude, obnoxious and mostly indifferent to her for quite a while.

One of the biggest problems I had with the book is Garon. For me, he crossed the line of acceptable behavior that I'm willing to forgive. He lets Grace believe that they are beginning this relationship, but then brushes her off without explanation, hoping she'll just take the hint. When the naive girl doesn't get it at first, he cruelly humiliates her on more than one occasion in front of the town by yelling at her not to stalk him and screaming at her that he doesn't want her and that they are through.

Another problem I had with Garon is that he was just really dense. He was supposed to be this smart, hotshot FBI agent, but it took him WAY too long to figure out who the child rapist and murder was when it was COMPLETELY obvious. And the fact that he kept brushing off Grace's behavior (baggy clothing, nightmares, extreme fear of men and her refusal to allow any men to touch her) as just some "inappropriate" touching when she was a child and not a big deal, was extremely upsetting for me. This guy was just an idiot. And mean. If he had been a little smarter, had the mystery not been so very obvious and had Garon treated Grace much more kindly, then Lawman would have been a good (typical, but good) Diana Palmer book. As it was, I just could not understand why this girl would fall in love with someone like that. He had basically no redeeming qualities.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dumb Man, June 19, 2007

By	Deborah Verlen "dmverlen" (Park Ridge, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lawman (STP - Mira) (Hardcover)

Others have reviewed the plot line, so I'll skip rehashing it. My problem with this book concerned several areas-mainly editing, character believability and plot development. Ms. Palmer needs to get a better editor. Aside from the Tess error, there were little things. For instance at Grace's grandmother's funeral she is given 4 lbs of coffee and she can't drink it for medical reasons (it is insinuated). Yet she drinks coffee in the rest of the book. Garon keeps referring to Grace at 24 as an old maid/spinster. I believe the average age right now that women in the US get married at is about 23.9. Not to be petty, but you rarely hear the word spinster or old maid anymore.
A big problem with the book was the portrayal of Grace Carver (as one reviewer said--a very poor choice for a last name) and Garon Grier as a couple. It really stretched the imagination. Grier is a hotshot lawman and he can't figure out Grace has been raped? Not to mention brutally raped? And he dismisses the most obvious suspect. Heck, I knew it was him right away and I'm certainly no hotshot lawman! Grace, is not exactly believable as a character. She was brutally attacked at 12. She suffered from cruelty when going to school. Didn't go to college, but at the end we are suppose to believe she speaks flawless Arabic and several other languages because she has a photographic memory? Arabic is a really tough language to learn visually let alone speaking it! She and Garon make love and it is wonderful for her. I'm sorry, but this slaps women who have been raped in the face. Here is this 24 year old who has had no counseling, no family support, has been ostracized by some of the town and has lived with an abusive grandmother -- and she is suddenly cured of her fear of sex by overwhelming passion for Garon? And Garon sees the marks on her and he doesn't figure out that they were made by a knife?
And what are the odds that both Cash Grier and Garon Grier would marry women who had been abused and raped as children?
On a positive note, I thought Ms. Palmer's writing was better than some of her more recent books. She tends to use certain phrases like "her eyes clung like ivy to him" over and over in a book. I didn't notice that tendency in this book. She also tends to have horrible fashion sense in her books--dressing characters in outmoded colors/clothes by passe designers. This book was much better with the clothing! I liked Garon and Grace, but would like to see Ms. Palmer quit with the Big Strong Man suffers horrendous hurt and distrusts all women and the Poor Little Trod Upon Girl wanting to be a whole woman falls in love and is willing to endure anything for love formula that she uses.
Her characters in themselves can be fascinating and watching their growth can be fun. BUT there is no excuse for the Big Strong Man and Weak Little Woman formula to be so tired and careworn as it is in this HARDCOVER book (this was better suited as a Harlequin romance book). Grace and Garon never had a lot of chemistry between them. Although I think the book with Cash and Tippy Grier was not as well written as this one, there was chemistry between the two of them that started with the Judd/Chrissie book.
Sorry for the length of my complaints, but Ms. Palmer frustrates me greatly as she has written some really good romance books and then she puts this out in hardcover and to be honest it is not worth the price!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Isn't a romance novel supposed to have romance in it?, September 4, 2007

By	Gabriel Bennet (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lawman (STP - Mira) (Hardcover)

I rarely take the time to write reviews as I feel that people should take the time to experience the book for themselves and make their own judgements. However, this was one of the worst books I have ever read in my entire life and felt the need to share my thoughts. There were so many things wrong with this book, that I'm having a hard time pin-pointing the worst part of it. Was it the terrible writing-style of the author, the inconsistencies in the book, or the abusive male-character?

Many times throughout the book, the author repeated the same line. Does she think that three pages later that the reader has already forgotten....or has she already forgotten that she has already mentioned this many times before? It is very frustrating as you would think with proofreading and editing, somebody would catch these very frustrating editing glitches. In addition, the book just does not flow smoothly. I had a very hard time picking the book back up.

We are told that Grace is not educated and has had to work two jobs to support her ailing grandmother, has never traveled outside of her small town....but somehow starts speaking fluent Arabic. Seriously? The author makes no attempt to explain this other than to have us assume that God has all of a sudden bestowed this gift upon this girl for no apparent reason. This is just one of the many, many ridiculous things that pop up in the book with absolutely no explanation from the author.

I may not be the expert on romance novels, but can't believe that anybody would find this to be romantic in any sense. The male character, Garon, is verbally abusive and plain out obnoxious. He thinks he's God's gift to women and treats Grace like dirt. She spends a good part of the book chasing him around begging for any attention he will give her. Seriously, this is somebody's idea of a romance novel?

If you've ever watched one of those terrible talk-shows where a woman's begging a very abusive boyfriend to take her back and you've spent the hour thinking how pathetic the whole scene is.....I'd say you just got a really good preview of the book.