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Is there a book out there entitled "Smart FBI Agent, Stupid Choices?" If so, Ana Grey needs a copy, although she'd never read it - the folks who need advice, I'm guessing seldom want to hear it. I've been waiting for this sequel to North of Montana since, well, 1994 since that first book came out. Smith's apparently been pretty busy, and she did have Be the One out a while ago, but those of us who clicked with Grey have been waiting a long time. That first book which began with such a good opener - FBI agent on her way to a baseball game sort of accidentally trips over a bank robbery in progress - introduced a complicated character, who didn't always make the best choices. In this story, Grey is working on the abduction of a young girl. She's good at her job, no question. And as is often the case in disappearances or kidnappings, the FBI and the local cops are involved. This gets complicated because Grey's already personally involved with Andrew Berringer, a detective with the local Santa Monica police. Ana can be incredibly smart and savvy; her interactions with the young kidnap victim Juliana after she returns home show heart and mind. The scenes late in the book (I can't tell too much, I'll spoil it) which involve the man she's been chasing show that she keeps cool when she needs to, she remembers all the right things under amazing stress. So why is she so incredibly stupid about her personal life? I guess that's not so surprising - it's probably true of many people. But it's difficult to witness in someone who is otherwise impressive and worth spending time with. Smith is a fine writer; the book moves along so quickly, even the parts I didn't especially want to read because they were icky (I tend not to like to read about psychotic behavior.) Even relatively minor scenes, like the borderline creepy scene in the park where middle-aged men photograph "amateur" models - a totally unpleasant almost soft-porn situation where men "test their camera equipment" when they're using automatic snapshot cameras, and where mothers come close to prostituting their daughters for a bunch of weirdos - is effective and gets things across very well without over-writing. I felt very ambivalent when I finished Good Morning, Killer because Ana Grey is such a mess, and at the same time, good at her job. I also was disappointed that I got a major clue about something very early in the book; this tends to lessen the suspense for me. I don't tend to read to figure out the puzzle, and was dismayed when a kind of flag went up for me saying "this is it!" Still, I'm very glad I read this book, for which I'd been waiting years. I'm not sure I want to watch Ana's self-destruction and really dumb behavior too much more, though.
Reviewed by Andi Shechter, May 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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