cover image Night Storm

Night Storm

Catherine Coulter. Avon Books, $7.99 (400pp) ISBN 978-0-380-75623-0

In this final installment of the Night trilogy, Coulter once again shows her knack for creating dynamic, likable lovers and engineering outrageous erotic situations. At the heart of a romance between an English lord and the daughter of a shipyard owner in 19th-century Baltimore is a psychodrama in which a young, androgynous woman with conventionally male responsibilities confronts her feminine identity. Coulter's conceit is that an independent woman will surrender to an attractive, domineering male so long as he arouses her passion with eroticism and not brutishness. The result is a lengthy paean to the pleasures of voyeurism, light bondage, cross-dressing and other variant sexual practices--performed, that is, with Mr. Right. Coulter will titillate like-minded readers. (Feb.)