Southern Comforts

Shallow and sketchy plotting undermine Ross's (Legacy of Lies) otherwise well-written romantic intrigue. One wonders if the murder emphasized on the back cover, but occurring quite late in the story, were actually an afterthought. Celebrity journalist Chelsea Cassidy has been asked to write Roxanne Scarborough's (the Diva of Domesticity) biography. Meanwhile, architect Cash Beaudine, Chelsea's sexy, never-to-be-forgotten college lover, has been hired to restore Roxanne's Southern plantation house. While sparks fly between Cash and Chelsea, Roxanne's past--a forgotten husband--rears his low-life head only to be found dead in the ashes of the plantation house. Had the plot allowed for more development, the reader could have become engrossed in figuring out the perpetrator and the reason for the murder, but as it stands, it's hard to care. (Sept.)