"Max Starr is back in another sizzling mystery"

If you haven't discovered JB Skully's Max Star mystery series, you should. Max is a lonely widow with a dark past who has developed psychic powers after watching her husband die and being raped and beaten by his killers. The afore- mentioned husband may be departed but he's not gone from Max's life, and he's still hell on wheels in the sack. (don't ask me to explain how a ghost who can't be seen can still make love; even Cameron, the ghost, doesn't know why).

This time Max is possessed by the spirit of an obese young woman named Bethany who was bludgeoned to death, apparently. Detective Witt Long, Max's unwilling partner in solving mysteries, is annoyed because he thinks it's a ploy on Max's part to get out of meeting his mother. That's right, his mother (Witt's an old-fashioned kind of guy). Fortunately, the murder took place next door to Witt's Mom's house, so they're able to investigate and still make it there in time for TV dinners.

As always, there are a plethora of suspects, from customers on the phone sex line Bethany ran to her anorexic and angry sister to Bud Traynor, the man Max strongly suspects was behind two previous murders she has solved -- but who always manages to slip through her fingers. And there's an odd tie to Max's own life. Bethany's father killed himself after getting caught red-handed embezzling funds from the law firm in which he was a partner -- Bud Traynor's firm -- and his death was being investigated by Cameron, just before his own death. Max ends up going undercover at a therapy group for anorexic, but she isn't ready to face her own problems yet, despsite Cam's urgings. Can she find Bethany's killer before Bud Traynor sinks his claws in her? And can she survive her steamy encounter on a braided rug with Witt?

The key to a popular mystery series is creating a detective and supporting cast you care about. Robert Parker's Spenser novels sell so well because we read them as much to find out about what's happening with Spenser, Hawk and Susan as to get a fast-paced thrill with a moral question wrapped up in the clues. Max is a bright addition to that pantheon, a troubled woman with a painful past and a smart mouth and the courage of a lion (except when it comes to Witt and facing her own emotional problems). Witt is a suitable match, a gorgeous blond Brendan Frasier type who speaks in half sentences and adores his dotty but not at all dumb Mom (Mom also speaks to her husband's ghost; no wonder Witt took it so well when Max 'fessed up to having incorporeal help). Bud Traynor is suitably loathesome villain, as evil in his own way as Hannibal Lector, albeit considerably more subtle, a manipulative spider spinning webs that seem to involve everyone Max knows or cares about. The thrills are non-stop, the plotting tighter than a shoe three sizes too small. When Max and Witt finally hit the sheets together -- it's worth waiting for.

I stayed up until 4 am reading this, and you'll find it impossible to put down. Skully has woven us another enthralling puzzle firmly rooted in her deft, sympathetic characterizations of the victim and the supporting cast, and she's dropped just enough hints about Cam's reason for hanging around after death to keep us anxious till book 4 comes out.

Sensuality Rating: very hot, with phone sex (including a fantasy of Daddy and a little girl) as well as straight sex.

Reviewed by Gillian Fitzgerald
Courtesy Sensual Romance Reviews
Posted June 3, 2004

Book III of the Max Series

Summary

When phone sex operator Bethany Spring is murdered, the brutal slaying plunges Max Starr into the woman's kinky after-midnight world. Barely surviving this crash course in Phone Sex 101, Max turns once again to hunky detective Witt Long to help her crack the case.

Needing Witt for his detecting skills is one thing, but meeting his mother is scarier than facing down a cold-blooded killer. What commitment is the irresistible detective going to extract from her next? Max almost prefers being possessed by a spirit.