Smoke in Mirrors

Author: Jayne Anne Krentz
Published: October 29, 2002 (Jove)
Category: Romantic Suspense
Rating: 8/10

Three strange deaths: one unsolved murder from thirty years ago, one suicide with suspicious circumstances, and a supposed car accident. Leonora Hutton, a mild-mannered librarian, has just lost her half-sister and con artist, Meredith Spooner. While cleaning out Meredith's apartment, she meets Thomas Walker, a victim of one of Meredith's schemes. He's also investigating the death of his sister-in-law, Bethany. She was supposedly under the influence of drugs, which is highly out of character for her, and jumped off a cliff. The common factor between these two very different women is their work in the Mirror House, built decades ago by Eubanks family, and also the site of Sebastian Eubanks', noted mathematician, death.

In exchange for the return of the money Meredith embezzled out of the Bethany Walker Endowment Fund, Leonora asks for Thomas' help in figuring out what really happened to Meredith. Since Leonora and Thomas are thrown together, they start a romance, which she tries to keep stifled because they're technically working together.

I really enjoyed the descriptions of the little college town with its frequent fog covering and spooky mirror house (where Leonora worked as a spy for mystery-solving purposes). This particular romantic suspense is more about the mystery than the romance, and that wasn't a bad thing, as the mystery was rather high-quality for a romance. The secondary romance between the yoga instructor and Thomas' brother was superfluous though; I wouldn't have missed it if it weren't there.