Close Encounters

A late-night dog-walking jaunt lands heroine Carol Taggert in the cross fire of an undercover drug bust in Kitt's (Family Affairs) latest African-American romance novel. It seems the bullet wound Carol sustains is not from a criminal but from Lt. Lee Grafton's gun. The divorced police officer and Carol immediately connect over a shared artistic sensibility, and he plays guardian to her as she recovers. Their attraction, however, faces a major roadblock. The heroine, after all, is an innocent black woman, and, by all appearances, was recently shot by a white cop. Carol is urged by friends and family to sue, but she does not want to become part of a media circus. Her musings over whether to file a lawsuit will strike readers as endless and her eventual decision seems an odd, unsupported choice. Kitt enlivens the tale with a dangerous felon--who was on the scene the night of Carol's injury and fears being framed for the botched incident--stalking Carol with deadly intentions. The interracial aspect of the love affair is handled very well, and the main characters are a good fit. Still, the novel fails to sustain the energy and interest established early on. (July)