White Lies by Linda Howard

White Lies-300Narrated by Lesa Lockford

First published in 1988, White Lies is the fourth book in Linda Howard’s much-loved Kell Sabin series. I read it in about 2010 and I thought it was a bit dated then. Suffice to say that nearly six years (and consequent technological advancement) hasn’t improved the situation.

White Lies was written pre-DNA and pre-cell phone but even so, a lot of it held up relatively well. Some things haven’t changed much at all. There is still a subset of romance which features an alpha hero and a further subset which features the alphahole hero. Where this hero fits on that spectrum will be subjective from listener to listener I guess, but he’s definitely on there somewhere!

Jay Granger is an ex-investment banker from New York, The book opens the day she is fired from her job. It’s been a crappy day and she is hoping to have some wine and forget her sorrows for a little while. However, everything changes when she receives a visit from the FBI. There has been an explosion and only one man survived. They know, from a partial driver’s license found at the scene, that one of the men in the explosion was Jay’s ex-husband, Steve Crossfield. However, they have been unable to positively identify him due to his extensive injuries. Will Jay come to Bethesda hospital in Washington to identify him?

Jay, in shock, agrees to the request and in short order, finds herself at the bedside of a seriously ill man. Both his legs are in casts as a result of fractures, his hands are bandaged (due to burns) and most of his face is also swathed in dressings. All that is visible is his lips and jaw and even those are swollen and discoloured from his injuries. His eyes were damaged in the blast. Doctors report that the eye surgery went well and he is expected to be able to see just fine in time. He had also sustained a severe head injury. He was not initially expected to live but this man has proved incredibly tenacious.

Jay is unable to positively identify the man as Steve. He is the same general size and shape as Steve but the FBI have told her that so is the “agent” (not an FBI agent) who was also in the explosion. They need her to identify Steve. They tell Jay they are hoping, when the man regains consciousness, that he will be able to provide information about what happened to their agent.

It is obvious that the man responds significantly to Jay’s voice. His vital signs improve when she is nearby and it is clear early on that he is fighting his way out of his medically-induced coma to be closer to her.

When the FBI give her the essential detail that the man in the hospital bed has brown eyes, Jay says that this man has to be Steve. The way he responds to Jay, his size, shape, eye colour – all of it fits Steve, so Steve he must be. However, Jay also becomes convinced, by a number of means, that Steve was also an agent. It explains so much about his personality and his now-more-muscular physique, as well as the high level interest and security surrounding him.

No longer tied to New York because of her unemployed status, the FBI convince her to stay in Washington and support Steve in his recovery.

When Steve comes out of the coma, he does not remember who he is. This puts him in danger because he does not know who his enemies are. The FBI arrange to stash him in a safe house in a remote Colorado location and Jay goes with him. By this time, she has fallen in love with Steve in a way she was never in love with the Steve of her marriage. And the feelings are completely mutual.

For much of the period Steve was in the hospital, he was unconscious and/or had a trach tube, and so was unable to speak. By the time they land in Colorado, Steve has recovered significantly and his alpha-ness reveals itself. Let’s just say my alpha tolerance has reduced since 2010.

The narration was, for the most part, very good. I felt a little sorry for Ms. Lockford’s voice actually because Steve’s vocal cords were damaged in the explosion and he now has a permanent rasp. I hope Ms. Lockford had hot lemon tea and honey handy. The differentiation between the characters was good; most of the male characters sounded different, although there were times when I had to put together, from dialogue tags or context, whether it was “the Man” or FBI agent Payne talking. There are very few females in the book actually. Apart from Jay and a couple of nurses, the cast is almost exclusively male.

I did find however, that Ms. Lockford sometimes incorporated odd pauses in the narration which didn’t have an obvious cause. There was no dialogue or punctuation reason and it didn’t seem to be a breathing issue. Whatever was the case, it resulted in out-of-place emphasis of some words and phrases. This didn’t happen all the time but occurred often enough that I felt I should mention it here.

Overall however, the narration was solid and enjoyable. The plot only holds up to scrutiny when viewed through a 1988 lens – ie before DNA most especially, but it was certainly an entertaining listen.

Kaetrin


Narration: B

Book Content: B-

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Fighting

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Publisher: Dreamscape Audio

White LIes was provided to AudioGals by Dreamscape Audio for a review.

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