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DEAD WRONG is the first in a trio of connected mysteries. Romance readers will be familiar with the general idea -- several books with a thin thread connecting each book to the rest in the series, and the main characters are not the connection. In DEAD WRONG the connection is three prisoners who spend several hours in the same room while awaiting their individual court appearances: "Let's just keep it simple," Channing suggested. "Archer takes my list, I take yours, Giordano, and you take Archer's." The list is each person's list of who they'd like to see punished (killed?) for their part in the series of events which led up to each particular prisoner being where (or who) they are. It's just a game to pass the time. Except Channing is a serial killer, a very successful serial killer. And he decides to take up the challenge. The first person on Giordano's list is Mary Douglas, the caseworker who helped decide that he could never see his children again. The second person is his former mother-in-law. The third person is the judge who made the final custody decision. His ex-wife isn't on his list because he killed her and their children. The truly difficult part of the story to swallow is that Channing, who has managed to plan and carry out numerous murders all over the country without a major goof-up, kills the wrong Mary Douglas. Not once. Not twice. Three times. The person he should be looking for is Mara, not Mary. He does manage to kill the mother-in-law and the judge with no problems, and without either killing being initially connected to any of the others. In his defense (what an odd thing to say), Channing is handicapped because all he has to go on is the information from that one encounter in the waiting room. He never communicates in any manner with Giordano again. Unfortunately for Channing, Mara Douglas has a sister. Annie McCall is a profiler for the FBI. She was engaged to Dylan Shields, who comes from an FBI family. Dylan was killed in a botched sting; his brother Aiden survived -- wounded in body and spirit, but still among the living. Annie calls on Aiden to protect Mara until the killer can be found. Stewart's previous experience as a romance writer can be felt in the way she handles the shift in feelings between Mara and Aiden. Mara is reluctant to let a man, any man, into her life after her ex-husband stole their daughter seven years ago and hasn't been seen since. DEAD WRONG is the story of the FBI trying to track down the killer, of Aiden deciding to rejoin the living, of Mara learning to trust another man, and Channing's personal history as the FBI comes closer and closer to him. There are some other sub-plots which will probably be given more prominence in the other two books in this series, DEAD CERTAIN and DEAD EVEN. Certain is Vince Giordano taking care of Archer's list; Even is Archer dealing with Channing's list. Mariah Stewart has taken her self-evident skills as an award-winning romance writer and made a lateral move into the suspense market. If DEAD WRONG typifies her writing skills, she will do very well. There are no major plot errors, no TSTL (too stupid to live) moves, no totally unbelievable characters. The suspense is there, the romance is there but takes a back seat to the suspense. I'll be glad to read the other books in the series, should I come across them.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, July 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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