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DRIVEN TO MURDER
by Judith Skillings
Avon, January 2006
368 pages
$7.99
ISBN: 0060583207


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Rebecca Moore is a former newspaper reporter who messed up. Now she runs her uncle's antique car restoration business and she is trying to make the best of it. She accepts a golden opportunity to fly west to Indianapolis and be part of a pit crew of a major racing event that is about to start in the next few days. She will be working alongside millionaire Peyton Madison's crew preparing a Lotus 49C for racing.

Unfortunately during the last few days there have been several acts of sabotage towards her car and her team. It all started to get serious when someone started taking potshots at the car and now, Rebecca is scared. However, she has no plans to go back to Maryland. She just can't deal with what's going on in her life at this time anyway.

Due to an event that started in last year's DANGEROUS CURVES, Rebecca does not want to deal with her past. She has two men pining for her and she has learned that she has no idea who she really is, and going to Indianapolis is her way of getting away from it all.

Unfortunately, whether intentional or not, this is how her character is defined, at least inside this novel. The author wants us to show that Rebecca is a strong and determined woman making her way in the male-dominated world of racing car drivers and mechanics, and yet, she has trouble dealing with her own personal life so you can't help but wonder where this character is going to go whether in the present or in the future.

I also had a problem with the crime aspects of the story. I have no intention of bringing in any spoilers but let's just say it came out of nowhere without the author having created a good solid foundation for that part of the story.

I admire the fact that Skillings uses her own background as a classic car restorer inside the story to give the book a sense of realism. But it is the characters who should be telling the story and it starts too late in the book. During the course of the book Rebecca meets a young girl who admires what Rebecca does but it is a bit underdeveloped for my taste.

I would recommend this book with some reservations. I would have liked to know more about the characters than the circumstances in the story. Still, I would try this author again in the future.

Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, March 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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