To Trust a Stranger (Hardcover)

by Karen Robards (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The usual ingredients bubble and boil in Robards's latest romantic suspense thriller. Julie Carlson, once a poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks but now the beautiful owner of a successful boutique in Charleston, S.C., seems to have it all. As the novel begins, however, a hit man circles her suburban mansion: Julie's rich husband, Sid, has hired thugs to kill her. Unaware of the danger she is in but convinced that Sid is cheating on her, Julie slips out of the house just in time and follows her husband to the red-light district, where she serendipitously and literally runs into private detective Mac McQuarry, dressed up in drag to spy on a client's husband. Julie isn't sure whether she should trust a man in a dress, but she has no one else to turn to, and soon she and Mac are working together to get the goods on Julie's crooked husband. As it happens, Mac holds a personal grudge against Sid, a prominent builder in Charleston, because Sid was involved in the disappearance of Mac's half-brother 15 years before, and then got Mac kicked off the police force when Mac tried to prove it. Robards's fans will enjoy the machinations before Julie and Mac get together, though cliches clutter every page ("The truth hit him like a hammer over the head: He had a galloping case of the hots for his newest client, who was not incidentally his oldest enemy's wife"). Of course, true love solves past mysteries, while hot kisses get as much play as life-threatening confrontations. A bodice ripper at heart, the novel is the equivalent of a box of junk candy.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Former beauty queen Julie Carlson hires investigator Mac McQuarry to prove her husband is cheating. Mac is elated; he has been looking for a reason to nail her husband for 15 years. But when Mac witnesses a hit on Julie (her husband hired thugs to kill her), he quickly discovers he'll do anything to keep her alive. Unfortunately, the story is not particularly compelling. While Mac is a solid hero, Julie is an unbearably weak and inconsistently drawn heroine. The overacting of narrator Laura Hicks doesn't help Julie become any deeper; Hicks doesn't trust the writing and overemotes every suspenseful or romantic moment to the point of laughter. The reading is unusually ridden with narrative stutters and replays. Robards is extremely popular, but you can pass on this one.
Jodi L. Israel, MLS, Jamaica Plain, MA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Atria; 1st Edition edition (December 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671786539
• ISBN-13: 978-0671786533
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,156,308 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Page Turner, December 30, 2001

By	L. Ponder "linsfolly" (Hamilton, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Julie Carlson decides to follow her husband one night, as he leaves their home. She believes he's been cheating on her. That night, Mac, dressed as a transvestite, will meet Julie, as her car crashes into his. Coincidentally, Mac is in an investigation business. And, he knows Julie's husband.

As Julie has Mac investigate her husband, she will not know Mac's hidden agenda. That agenda will cause problems between them, as both Julie's and Mac's lives are threatened.

TO TRUST A STRANGER has one of the best prologues I've ever read. And, the relationship between Julie and Mac is believable, and very tempestuous and sexy. There's some interesting secondary characters, and some really scary bad guys. The story moves very quickly, and made this book a real page-turner. Oh yes, and before I forget, there's a dog, Josephine, who is a real scene-stealer.

There's only a couple of things that keep this book from being a 5-star read, for me. The book seemed a little too short, the romantic relationship between Julie and Mac, a little too quick. Still, it's very much worth reading, and maybe rereading.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Suspense, December 29, 2001

By	Sheri Melnick (Enola, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Suspenseful and sexy, Ms. Robards' read is a thriller with non-stop action providing hours of glued-to-the-pages entertainment.

Former South Carolina beauty queen Julie Carlson suspects that her mega-bucks husband, Sid, is cheating on her. As she follows him one night, a farcical set of circumstances leave her clad in skimpy pajamas, stranded in Charleston's red light district without a car and with a transvestite named Debbie as her only companion.

Debbie is really Mac McQuarry, a P.I. who went undercover to locate a client's cheating husband. When Mac aids Julie out of the jam she is in, Julie discovers that Debbie is really a man, but she assumes that he is gay. Not bothering to correct her, Mac lets Julie think what she will, adding an element of humor to this intense read as Julie finds herself fantasizing about Debbie aka Mac.

Soon, Julie discovers that her life may be in danger, and Mac is probably the only one that she can trust. Swallowing her pride, Julie tries to overlook the fact that Mac omitted the truth about his sexuality and his previous association with Sid. In a heart-stopping race for their lives, Julie and Mac are on the run from the police, the mob, and a hit man. Can they find safety before they both end up dead?

Combining the excitement of a mystery with the spice of a romance, Ms. Robards has, once again, firmly established her position in the genre of romantic suspense. And all the characters, most especially Mac and Julie, are so realistically written, thereby increasing the credibility of this read. A MUST READ!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TRUST THIS STRANGER!, January 13, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: To Trust a Stranger (Mass Market Paperback)

Karen Robards latest is a great escape. Think Linda Howard's MR. PERFECT or Janet Evanovich's series with Stephanie Plum. . . What do these books have in common with TO TRUST A STRANGER? Humor! Humor! I love it. Oh, don't worry. You'll get the handsome hero and the beautiful heroine in danger, the bad guys, the steamy sex, etc. But you also get a large does of humor. I love authors whose characters are funny as well as sexy. I'm not sure why this book didn't get a solid 5 stars in the ratings, but I for one urge you to give it a read. A keeper!