General Outline: Jane is trying to be a normal university student when she gets dragged into a life she thought she left behind. When her childhood friend is killed instead of her in a kidnapping attempts she must once again deal with her mysterious/dangerous protector named Trevor. She and Trevor have had several run ins over the years dealing with the lost gold of Cira, a famous actress in pompeii before its destruction. Jane looks like "Cira" so she tends to attract people who think she has a mystic connection to her. Once Jane recovers from the shock of having her friend killed in front of her she is on the case and what was a simple case of revenge turns into a race to stop a master brain washer from unleashing his unquestioning servants against the U.S.A. --- This wasnt a bad book, it is just what seems to be normal for a lite mystery/romance novel. The main character in this book is apparently a secondary character from a couple of pevious books. With this story all the main characters are brought in early and the first half of the book (more or less) details their emotions and various catching up scenes and why-I-like/don't like you moments. By the time Jane leaves the U.S.A and ends up in Scotland where a few more characters are introduced and after a few more emotion scenes we get to the actual story and it turns into the normal terroists are going to blow somthing up and the heros must rush around and put themselves in mortal danger to stop them story. Suffice to say all the bad guys end up having a really bad day when they finally meet the heros. The story is a fast read and it does keep you turning the pages to find out how exaclty everything wraps up and yes it does leave room for *yet* another sequel. All in all fans of this author and light mystery romance fans will proably enjoy this book. -m.a.c
one of a series of novels by Iris Johansen following forensic sculptor Eve Duncan and her husband Joe Quinn, an Atlanta PD cop.They have minimal roles in this one. The main character is eve's 21 year old adopted daughter Jane Maguire.I didn't read the previous book in the series, which took place 4 years earlier. It also dealt with Cira, who was an actress in ancient Rome. She may have died in Herculaneum when Mt Vesuvius erupted, leaving behind a treasure of gold. Jane, for some reason looks just like Cira (a statue of her was recovered from the site), and she also seems to dream as Cira (no explanation given for this).Jane is a strong-willed young woman who manages to ensnare the un-ensnarable (unsnarable?) Trevor, a 36 year old con man/smuggler with a shrouded history. He's been pining away for Jane (basically stalking her)since their last encounter in Herculaneum 4 years earlier. Anyway, convoluded story about trying to find Cira's gold. All kinds of bad guys. Jane knowingly puts herself in dangerous situations. Far more mature than any real 21 year old. Very little suspense. Skip this one.
After a botched kidnapping attempt and the death of a friend, Jane MacGuire is running for her life. The only man who can help her is Mark Trevor, a con man who has his own reasons for wanting to keep Jane safe from a relentless killer. As Jane and Trevor try to solve a 2,000 year old mystery of Cira's gold, they need to stop international terrorists from carrying out their deadly plot.This is a continuation of Johansen's previous book, Blind Alley. When I finished Blind Alley, I was relieved the hunt for Cira's gold was over. In this book we are hunting for it again, going up against international terrorists who want the gold too. I was so BORED with this story. At least the last 100 pages were somewhat interesting. And, I'm sorry to say, we still haven't found the treasure. I hope this plot isn't revisited in the next book or I may have to just give up on this series. My rating: 2 Stars.
—Robin
This book is a bit of the sequel Blind Alley. It is forward 4 years but still about Jane Macquire and Cira.It starts off with Mike (who Jane use to help take care of when they lived off the streets) gets killed. They find out that Mike was killed in error as it was suppose to be a kidnapping of Jane. In comes (Mark) Trevor who whisks her away to Scotland to McDuffs Run (castle)to keep her safe. Jane starts to have dreams about Cira again.At the run she mets Mario who is translatting scrolls from
—Elizabeth Noah Astle
This novel is a very close sequel to the preceding novel in the series, which is yet another example of why particularly in this series you really should start with the first one and go on from there. At the end of Blind Alley, Jane and Trevor, together with the assistance of Eve Duncan and Joe Quinn, had vanquished the serial killer who had been pursuing Jane throughout the book, but the chest of gold reputed to have been left behind by Cira, the Jane look-alike who had disappeared when Vesuvius covered the city of Herculaneum and Pompeii with 70 feet of lava had not been found, and Trevor had mysteriously disappeared. Four years have passed, and Jane is now 21, a senior at Harvard, when suddenly adventure comes roaring back as some unknown men try to kidnap her and kill her childhood friend, Mike, in the process. Out of the woodwork, Trevor and his somewhat strange assistant Bartlett reappear in her life, and the action goes back to Herculaneum to continue the adventure, which now involves a new group of that guys who are perhaps even more sinister than the fellow who wanted to remove her face before. Meanwhile, dreams of Cira’s last day continue to haunt Jane’s dreams, as she is introduced to some new people in a castle in Scotland.
—JBradford
