Barbara Freethy: Don't Say a Word

Signet, New York (Paperback), ISBN 0-451216768

Barbara Freethy dusts off the often used plot of "woman planning to marry Mr. Nice-But-Wrong-Guy but gets saved by life changing event," and reuses it in her Cold War-connected romantic suspense: Don't Say a Word.

In this melding and dumbing down of Anastasia, Russia House and The Parent Trap, Don't Say a Word features Julia DeMarco, a leggy blond trying to fit into a dark-haired bosomy Italian family.

The book opens with her entering the local museum in her home town, San Francisco, where she will meet the wedding planner and set a date for her nuptials to Michael, the sweet fiancé her dying mother adores. On her way to the meeting, she visits a photography exhibit.

Julia studies a famous photograph and quickly realizes that the image of a child standing behind the iron gate of a Russian orphanage mirrors her self at that age. Not just similar, but exact, right down to the freckle by her eyebrow. Convinced that she must prove the identity of the child, Julia searches for the photographer. Sadly the man behind the lens died tragically in a freak accident. His studly son, Alex, who followed in his photographer father's footsteps, opens the door and flashes his sexy green eyes. He immediately recognizes Julia as the girl in the photo.

Thus begins the whirlwind search to connect Julia to the photograph. The young couple, destined for amazing sex and magnetic attraction, watches their lives fall apart as one by one they reveal lies that loved ones told them.

The plot stretches a bit thin through the middle of this book while the author rehashes all of the plot points and makes sure for the fiftieth time that the reader understands and connects the dots. Yet Freethy eventually fills in the back story and with a stirring, if not quite suspenseful climax, ties all of the storylines into a nice big bow.

I'm a sucker for mysterious pasts, long-hidden secrets and the stories behind photographs. But in this book, the author bit off more than she could get readers to swallow. Most of the characters simply moved the plot along as convenient vehicles. Story lines got dropped and dredged up again in a rather haphazard fashion. The plot harbors much potential, but the author penned a weak rendition of what could have been.

Yet, even with the grousing about what could have been, I think Freethy gives it a good attempt. Readers who miss the cozy version of Cold War spy novels and still long for child star, Hayley Mills (star of the original The Parent Trap) will be pleased with this romantic suspense -- with emphasis on the romantic.

Dawn Goldsmith

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