Julie Garwood: Fire and ice

Julie Garwoodin jännärissä selvitetään kummallista kuolemantapausta, Alaskassa jääkarhun syömäksi joutuvan juoksijan kohtaloa: Fire and ice (Ballantine Books, 2008; ISBN 978-0-345-50076-2).



Romaani on sokerilla kuorrutettu, mutta muutamassa kohdissa on mukana terävähköjä yllätyksiä. Massatuotannosta ei romaani kuitenkaan erotu edukseen, ehkä jopa päinvastoin, kömpelyyttä ja hätäisyyttä on kerronnassa siinä määrin.

Sophie Rose, a tough and determined newspaper reporter, is the daughter of Bobby Rose, a suave, charming, and handsome gentleman who also happens to be a notorious big-time thief sought by every law-enforcement agency in the country. When the major Chicago daily where she works insists she write an expose about her roguish father, Sophie refuses, quits her job, and goes to work at a small newspaper. Far from her onetime high-powered crime beat, she now covers local personalities such as the quirky winner of several area 5K runs whose trademark is goofy red socks.

Those red socks-with Sophie's business card neatly tucked inside-are practically all that's found after runner William Harrington is killed near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, seemingly the victim of a brutal death by polar bear. The Alaska cops want to know why Harrington carried Sophie's card. With an unerring nose for a good story, she heads north.

What Sophie doesn't realize is that on her journey from Chicago to Prudhoe Bay, danger follows in her wake. After one attempt on her life, she's been assigned brash but sexy Jack MacAlister as a bodyguard by the cautious FBI. Amid great peril and deadly intrigue in the unforgiving Alaskan terrain, she and Jack form an uneasy alliance sparked with sensual attraction. But they will soon be fighting more than their growing passion for each other. Powerful forces will stop at nothing to prevent the exposure of the sinister conspiracy Sophie and Jack are about to uncover.