WHEN THE STORM BREAKS

Like mother, like daughter—or so the saying goes. Unfortunately, this debut romantic suspense novel from Lowell (daughter of author Elizabeth Lowell) is ridden with run-of-the-mill characters and overused plot devices. After a night spent joining a dating service, Claire Lambert stumbles across a murderer in the act of committing his latest crime, drops her purse and runs away, only to wake the next morning with little memory of the night before. As Washington, D.C., detective Sean Richter tries to coax her into remembering, she finds herself falling in love with him. There's only one problem: she may be the killer's next victim. In an outrageous plot twist, Sean devises a plan to send Claire on closely monitored dates with men from the dating service she joined earlier. This scenario provides the potential for some fun scenes, but the gag falls flat when each date proves to be a cliché (a stuffy banker, a closeted gay man, etc.). In addition, the reader learns early on that the murderer never joined the service, which deflates any hope that tension might arise from this scenario. Most disappointing of all, however, is the distance the author places between herself and her characters. This narrative detachment results in protagonists who lack definition and sex scenes that fail to evoke emotion. (Aug.)

Forecast:Lowell, HarperTorch's "Superleader," is receiving a big push for her first outing, but multimedia advertising, a blurb from Jayne Ann Krentz and the cachet of the Lowell name may not be enough to offset poor word of mouth.