cover image Fly by Night

Fly by Night

Carol Wallace. St. Martin's Press, $16.95 (231pp) ISBN 978-0-312-03834-2

Springtime in Paris, a spunky heroine, a darkly brooding rejected lover and an enigmatic new suitor are sure-fire ingredients in Wallace's ( Waking Dream ) entertaining romantic suspense novel. Life is good for American Louise Gerard, who works in the City of Light for a junior-year-abroad program, despite the fact that she has just broken up with her lover, Volker, a volatile, anti-American German who may be trying to drive her crazy. But then her father, a stuffy Boston lawyer, is arrested at London's Heathrow on his way home after a visit in Paris for smuggling a valuable illuminated missal and cocaine. Louise asks Edward Cole, a new acquaintance who has a mysterious government job, to help. Their romance progresses, but when Louise's borrowed scooter is involved in a hit-and-run accident and a stolen antique turns up in her office, she must decide whether she can trust Edward--her life may depend on it. Both the adventure and the romance may be a little saccharine, but a thrilling chase through Paris redeems all. (May)