Sandra Brown's two previous novels, Unspeakable and Fat Tuesday, earned her a loyal band of romantic suspense fans and The Alibi is sure to increase the following. Mixing a little murder, some corruption, and a good bit of illicit romance, this novel makes the golf courses of Charleston, South Carolina, seem as seedy and fascinating as the back alleys of Chinatown.
Hammond Cross wants to be the district attorney, and for years he has proven himself to be a man of high principles and irreproachable character. When his investigations turn up evidence of the corruption of local tycoon Lute Pettijohn, Hammond has no doubt about what is the right thing to do--even when his own father is under suspicion. However, this simple debate becomes complicated when Pettijohn is murdered and Hammond's alibi is a night of forbidden passion with the suspected murderess, Dr. Alex Ladd.
Brown's quick dialogue, character quirks, and plot twists help give a modern bent to the classic detective tale. While some of the characters prance across the pages with a predictability that would make Dashiell Hammett proud (the drunk-makes-good assistant, the light-hair-dark-history socialite) most of the characters show refreshing individuality. As Hammond's internal conflict intensifies--and the passion and danger do, too--readers will find all criticisms vanishing as they blast their way through this suspenseful page-turner. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien
Brown's fans will find The Alibi to be an entertaining and satisfying addition to her list of previous works. Set in Charleston, South Carolina, the novel offers the southern location and attitude for which Brown is known. The climate is steamy and so is the chance meeting and sexual encounter of District Attorney Hammond Cross and a mysterious but irresistible woman. How could he know that she would be the prime suspect in the murder of one of the city's leading citizens? How could he know that he would be able to provide her with an airtight alibi for the time of the murder? Suspicion of her motives and fear for his own reputation and political future stop him from coming forward but don't prevent him from working to solve the crime himself. His search for the truth is complicated by a sultry, ambitious woman colleague who is after his job; a politically crafty father with shady connections to the murdered man; a stiffly proper and tightly controlled police investigator; and a whole pile of other supporting characters, all with their own crooked, violent, promiscuous, and otherwise unsavory but interesting quirks. As you might expect, love and justice triumph, and all the bad guys get their due. This is a fun and quick read, and it is probably safe to assume that Brown has produced another best-seller. Danise Hoover
From Kirkus Reviews
According to her publisher, Brown (Unspeakable, 1998, etc. etc.) has had 37 titles on the New York Times bestseller lists in the past nine years, some of them reprints of her Texas! trilogy and other earlier works. With her latest weighing in at nearly 500 pages, shes one speedy typistand as styleless as a Latin dictionary, with meticulously clipped sentences compounded of industrial connectives. Charleston assistant district attorney Hammond Cross unaccountably finds himself at a county fair, where he meets a mysterious woman and saves her from hungry servicemen. She leads him on, then fades into the night. Meanwhile, Charleston's biggest developer and satyr, Lute Petitjohn, is murdered in the Charles Towne Plaza. Lute was the exbrother-in-law of top detective Rory Smilow, who is investigating the murder and whom sexy assistant county solicitor Steffi Mundell begs to help her land this superhigh-profile case. All avenues at last lead to Dr. Alex Ladd, the very woman Hammond was dancing with while the murder occurred. But Hammond cant reveal he's her alibi without compromising his job as a legal- evidencegatherer for the city. A story Brown's fans will savor, however charmless its language. (Literary Guild main selection) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Sandra Brown is the author of seventy-seven New York Times bestsellers, including Blood Moon, Out of Nowhere, Overkill, Blind Tiger, Thick As Thieves, Seeing Red, Outfox, Tailspin, Sting and Mean Streak. Writing professionally since 1981, Brown has published over eighty novels and has upwards of eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide. Her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. Brown holds an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Texas Christian University, where she instituted the Excellence in Literary Fiction, or ELF, a scholarship awarded annually to a creative writing student. She has served as president of Mystery Writers of America, and in 2008 she was named Thriller Master, the top award given by the International Thriller Writer’s Association. Other honors include the Texas Medal of Arts Award for Literature and the Romance Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
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