Erickson's tepid romantic mystery, which follows Without a Trace
(2003), feels derivative and strangely inert, like a facsimile of a Mary Higgins Clark work that has been blanched of freshness, urgency and color. When the Aspen, Colo., district attorney's office reopens the 12-year-old case of the murder of a prominent orthopedic surgeon's first wife, buried secrets emerge in a plot that amounts to a drawn-out postmortem. The requisite romantic triangle finds the doctor's lovely second wife, Julia, wringing her hands over loyalty to her disdainfully indifferent husband and her attraction to strong-and-silent PI Cam Lazlo, who worked the original case and exudes antihero appeal. Julia happens to work for the DA's office and must struggle with tough career decisions when she's not caring for her husband's wayward daughter or bracing herself for bad news. Her put-upon status endears her to Cam, who quit the police force over a private tragedy and whose detective work is now financed by an eccentric author who hankers after grist for his popular crime fiction. Passages from this book-within-a-book intrude into the larger plot—one that's only marginally more compelling. Unfortunately, the plot never percolates, and this blend of suspense, romance and crime yields a mostly weak brew. Agent, Karen Solem at Spencerhill Associates. (Dec. 7)
