In the Dark

Dark and stormy nights abound in McKinney's (A Man to Slay Dragons) latest novel of romance and suspense. From a disinherited branch of the mega-rich Blum family, practical Boston veterinarian Alyn Blum-Jones is shocked to read of the disappearance of her only living relative, her heiress aunt Jacqueline Blum, the day before Alyn is to meet her for the first time. Alyn travels to her aunt's Maryland estate, where she meets Peter Youngblood, the tough ex-cop hired by Masterlife Insurance to investigate the case. From Peter, Alyn learns she is her aunt's chief beneficiary and the insurance company's chief suspect. Peter and Alyn search for Jacqueline in Maryland horse country and New York City, encountering along the way a host of oily stable managers and oilier foreign butlers, nefarious nightclub owners, unprincipled corporate bosses, thick plots, kinky outfits and dead bodies--all of which leaves Alyn plenty of time to reckon with her own past as well as with the bearish, passionate Youngblood. Romance outweighs suspense in this easily solvable mystery, which mixes language from popular movies, cheap fiction and expensive stores to offer a rarely surprising but also rarely dull taste of the dark side of inherited wealth, unexpected love and the insurance business. (Dec.)