Promise Me Forever

The final installment in the Sisters of Mercy Flats trilogy picks up abruptly from its predecessors ( Promise Me Today and Promise Me Tomorrow ). The McDougal sisters, trapped in a runaway jail wagon, are being chased by teenaged Comanches. Watching the women's plight are Morgan Kane, a Union spy, and two other men who join forces to rescue them. Kane saves Amelia McDougal, a featherbrained, silly twit of a girl. He promises to see her safely to Galveston, where after just a few hours on her own she falls prey to a villain who sells women into prostitution. Destined to become an infamous privateer's prize, Amelia is taken aboard a ship where she meets 10 other captives. The villain mistakes Kane for the privateer--who happens to be the subject of the spy's secret mission--and Kane acts out the charade aboard ship. All escape and flee on a riverboat which hosts a series of uneventful scenes that end when the villain's riverboat catches up with them and the boilers of both boats explode. Everyone is blown into the water, but only the good guys and gals survive. A witless heroine, inane dialogue and a shallow plot are only a few of the myriad maladies that ail this story. Undoubtedly meant to be a lighthearted, humorous romance, it falls ill on page one and never recovers. (May)