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Summary
Summary
Corporate mogul Ed Vincent lies in a hospital bed following his attempted murder; Melba Merridew waits patiently by his side. But is she his closest friend or the attempted assassin? In a Heartbeat skillfully blends taut suspense with breathtaking romance in the tale of a man whose long-kept secrets slowly unravel to rock a woman's world.
Author Notes
Writer Elizabeth Adler grew up in Yorkshire in the north of England. She has written over twenty novels including Fortune Is a Woman; The Last Time I Saw Paris; Summer in Tuscany; Invitation to Provence; Meet Me in Venice; and There's Something About St. Tropez. In her books, she describes in great detail the clothing and perfume her characters wear to the scented candles, sofas, pillows, beds and rugs that they have because she believes it tells you more about who they are. She believes that it's the small details that make her stories come to life. She also includes many of her own recipes in her books.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Acceptable as a substitute for daytime soap opera viewing, if nothing else, this contemporary romantic thriller fails to live up to favorite Adler titles like Peach and Fortune Is a Woman. Heavy on the romance and light on the thrills, the writer's 13th novel is all lather and featherweight intrigue. Ed Vincent, a real estate tycoon with a mysterious past, has been shot by a would-be assassin and lies comatose in a New York hospital. His love interest, Georgia peach Melba Merrydew, also a target, comes to grieve by Ed's bedside. Enter Marco Camelia, a handsome homicide detective, who, with Melba's help, investigates Ed's shadowy past, all the while falling in lust with Melba's Southern charm and sun-kissed legs. The one-dimensional characters are modeled not on real-life counterparts but on their movie star prototypes (Adler reminds the reader a number of times that Melba looks like Sharon Stone and Marco is a ringer for Pacino, while Ed owns a building named Vincent Towers, la Trump Tower). The slow-moving, clich-ridden tale is not rescued by the action-packed finaleDtoo little, too late. Even Adler's fans may find her latest outing uninspiring, although chances are they'll go along for the ride; but Adler won't pick up many new readers based on this title. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A complex mystery adroitly interwoven with an appealing romance, courtesy of a seasoned pro. A mega-rich Manhattan real-estate developer is gunned down as he steps from his private plane. Who would want to kill him? Theres only one clue at the outset: Zelda, the name Ed Vincent breathed before he lapsed into a coma. NYPD homicide detective Marco Camelia has no idea who Zelda isuntil she shows up of her own accord. Turns out, shes a 32-year-old single mother whose real name is Mel, short for Melba Eloise Merrydew, and she insists that Zelda was Eds pet name for her. Their romance began when Mel tracked down Ed in New York after accidentally witnessing a murder at his deserted beach house in North Carolina. Shes sure she saw a man killed at gunpoint, but come sunrise there was no body or sign of foul play. After hearing this, Ed didnt know what to think or do next, but he was beguiled by the plucky Mel. Now helpless in his hospital bed, he cant protect her or her seven-year-old daughter Riley. Hes unable to communicate with Mel or the detective, who digs up most of the backstory anyway. Ed is the son of a Tennessee sharecropper; he somehow survived the horrific fire set by a disturbed brother that killed the rest of his family as they slept. Adrift and penniless, Ed hauled garbage, built that into a business, then parlayed his money into a New York real-estate empire. Alberto Ricci, president of a Cayman Islands investment consortium, and Khalid al Sharif, a reclusive Saudi wheeler-dealer, are among those who want a piece of that empire, but these suave villains wouldnt dirty their hands with a contract killing. That they leave to a strange man from Eds past who, once more, threatens Mel, her daughter, and Ed himself. Adler ( All or Nothing , 1999, etc.) makes this tangled plot seem plausible without even breaking a sweat. And, as always, her direct, razor-sharp style doesnt waste a wordor anybodys time.
Booklist Review
Adler's latest thriller offers a clever twist on an old theme. Millionaire Ed Vincent is nearly killed by four bullets to the chest. As Vincent's lover, Zelda Merrydew, helps a charming homicide detective investigate the attempted murder, she uncovers things about the man she loves that he'd rather she didn't know. Adler's enjoyable characters and lively dialogue alone wouldn't quite overcome this tired premise. But there's one other thing that makes the novel different: Ed Vincent himself, lying in the hospital, unable to communicate in any way, is a principal character in the story. Like Dalton Trumbo's classic Johnny Got His Gun, Adler's novel features scenes in which the reader is inside a man's mind, feeling the helplessness of wanting desperately to cry out while being utterly unable to make a sound. Vincent is an immensely sympathetic character, and he turns this otherwise typical novel of buried secrets into something special. --David Pitt
