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Tall, Dark, and Deadly: A Novel (St. Martins) Kindle Edition
Grace Jordan is leaving her dark past behind. Having traded in her big-city badge for life in the slow lane in Rockville, South Dakota, Grace and her daughter were hoping to make a fresh, clean start. But crime is at-large in small towns, too…and young women keep turning up brutally murdered. Before she knows it, Grace has got a serial murder case on her hands—and the infuriatingly seductive FBI agent Justin Reece by her side.
Grace did not come to Rockville looking for romance. But she can't deny the chemistry between her and Justin—no matter how much she might want to. Meanwhile, things keep heating up as more women turn up dead, and a disturbing new pattern points to a killer who seems to be sending a message for Grace alone. But how could he know such secret, scandalous details about her life? Unless he happens to be someone from the past she would kill to forget…
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSt. Martin's Paperbacks
- Publication dateMarch 31, 2009
- File size1.7 MB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“The best book I’ve read this year!”—New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh
"O'clare writes edgy suspense with tough-as-nails characters who endure more than most can imagine and they come out stronger on the other side." --Romantic Times BOOKreviews on Tall, Dark and Deadly
"a gripping novel." -- A Romance Review
"Ms. O'Clare has written a gritty, dangerous and sexy story. The action starts on the first page and doesn't let up until the last. Tall, Dark and Deadly is a page turner packed with sensuality and suspense. You won't want to miss this one." --Fallen Angel Reviews
“O’Clare [writes] page-turners filled with well-developed characters and sparkling, sharp-witted dialogue…and attraction so strong you can feel it!”—Romantic Times BOOKreviews
From the Back Cover
First in a brand-new series from award-winning author Lorie O’Clare—a sexy, thrilling novel about a female cop, an FBI agent, and a whole world of trouble in-between…
WHEN YOU CAN’T FIGHT A KILLER DESIRE
Grace Jordan is leaving her dark past behind. Having traded in her big-city badge for life in the slow lane in Rockville, South Dakota, Grace and her daughter were hoping to make a fresh, clean start. But crime is at-large in small towns, too…and young women keep turning up brutally murdered. Before she knows it, Grace has got a serial murder case on her hands—and the infuriatingly seductive FBI agent Justin Reece by her side.
SURRENDER IS THE ONLY OPTION…
Grace did not come to Rockville looking for romance. But she can’t deny the chemistry between her and Justin—no matter how much she might want to. Meanwhile, things keep heating up as more women turn up dead, and a disturbing new pattern points to a killer who seems to be sending a message for Grace alone. But how could he know such secret, scandalous details about her life? Unless he happens to be someone from the past she would kill to forget…
“O’Clare [writes] page-turners filled with well-developed characters and sparkling, sharp-witted dialogue…and attraction so strong you can feel it!”—Romantic Times BOOKreviews
About the Author
Lorie O’Clare is an award-winning erotic romance writer with more than 40 books published. Her stories range from the wild lives of werewolves to the passionate and thrilling world of romantic suspense. An EPPIE and Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award winner, she lives in Kansas with her three boys and two dogs, a Boston Terrier and a beagle. Visit her on the Web at www.lorieoclare.com.
Product details
- ASIN : B002F0X0QO
- Publisher : St. Martin's Paperbacks; Original edition (March 31, 2009)
- Publication date : March 31, 2009
- Language : English
- File size : 1.7 MB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 400 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,297,564 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #60,841 in Romantic Suspense (Kindle Store)
- #107,262 in Romantic Suspense (Books)
- #240,193 in American Literature (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Lorie O'Clare was born in 1965 in San Diego, CA. She's the oldest of three children and for the first part of her life traveled with her family, living in many Midwestern states, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana and finally Kansas. She graduated from high school in 1983 as a junior and began her college life at age 17. She received a double major in English and Political Science in 1991. Although her original intentions were to go on to law school, and she went as far as taking the LSAT, being a lawyer wasn't in the writing for Ms. O'Clare.
The same year she graduated from the Univ. of KS. she also married. Ten months later she gave birth to her first son. Her second son was born in 1994 and her third son in 1996. Although she wanted a daughter, this was also a plan of hers that would never happen. Six months after her third son was born she had a hysterectomy.
Her marriage lasted ten years with an amiable parting. During those years, Lorie began reading every romance she could get her hands on. Times were hard and she went through every romance novel her library had, then found very cheap book clubs and received new romance novels in the mail each month. The Internet also entered Lorie's life during this time and she made on line friends with similar interests to hers.
Lorie continued with her passion for reading, merging into other genres when she was convinced she'd read every published romance novel out there. While reading she often experienced the sensation that she could have made the story better. She began writing, purely for her own satisfaction. In those early years, when her boys were young and she was newly divorced, Lorie wrote eight full length novels. All but one of those novels would later be published.
In 1998, Lorie took the push from her on line friends and tried publishing her first novel, a children's story called Dolls Of Tashan. She printed manuscripts on her word processor and mailed them out as often as she could afford the postage. The rejection letters were painful but she kept every one of them, first in one spiral notebook, then eventually adding another, and finally a third. In 2003, Lorie published her first book with a very small epublisher called Amber Quill Press. The book wasn't her children's story but a romance novel. To this day she has not published Dolls of Tashan, the first book she ever wrote.
Later that same year, a good friend encouraged Lorie to try writing erotic romance. Lorie had a completed novel ready to submit. Instead of sending it to her current epublisher, she submitted it to a larger epublisher called Ellora's Cave. Although this was an erotic romance publisher and Lorie's novel was a simple romance, with little more than a chaste kiss, Ellora's Cave contracted the book and assigned an editor who taught Lorie how to write erotic romance. The book contracted was In Her Blood, a werewolf novel. Her new editor suggested she write a short story and turn the werewolves into a series. Lorie did this and her first book published with Ellora's Cave was Pack Law in October, 2003.
Today Lorie O'Clare has published over 60 books. She still writes for Ellora's Cave. In 2008 she sold her first book to St. Martins, which took her name into mass market publishing. Today Lorie has two books out with St. Martins with six more scheduled to release over the next couple of years. She also sold a book to Kensington Press in 2008. Currently she has two books out with Kensington and plans to continue writing for them as well.
Lorie writes full time, lives with her teenage boys, her two dogs, Dude, her Boston Terrier, and Lady, her Beagle. She also has two American Short hair cats, Ernie and Tigger. She plans on writing until she dies. "There is nothing more fulfilling than creating a new world and walking through it with the people who live there," she says, as her fingernails tap away at the keyboard.
Customer reviews
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Customers enjoyed the book's readability, romance, and suspense. They found the premise interesting and the characters well-developed. However, some readers felt the story had holes and loose ends.
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Customers find the book easy to read. They say it's a good read and perfect for relaxing with a glass of wine and a soak in the tub.
"...It has romance, adventure and suspence. This book is perfect to read with a glass of wine and a soak in the tub." Read more
"This book is a great book for anyone who enjoys crime novels (like myself) but also likes a good, intense love story. I mean, who doesn't?..." Read more
"...I love a well written book. Whether it's romance, suspense, erotica etc... it doesn't matter...." Read more
"I enjoyed reading this novel." Read more
Customers enjoy the romance in the book. They find the characters engaging and the story has elements of adventure and suspense.
"I found this book to be hot and sexy! It has romance, adventure and suspence...." Read more
"...who enjoys crime novels (like myself) but also likes a good, intense love story. I mean, who doesn't? Just be prepared...." Read more
"...The suspense is definitely there. The characters are pretty good...." Read more
"...was a nice balance of mystery/ cop drama and the romance/ family lives of the characters." Read more
Customers find the book has suspense and a nice balance of mystery, cop drama, and romance. They say the premise is interesting and the story is good for romantic suspense, if you don't mind some holes and loose ends.
"I found this book to be hot and sexy! It has romance, adventure and suspence...." Read more
"...The premise of the story is interesting and so much could have been done with it...." Read more
"...The suspense is definitely there. The characters are pretty good...." Read more
"...I thought there was a nice balance of mystery/ cop drama and the romance/ family lives of the characters." Read more
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An interesting story that can't overcome bad execution
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2011I found this book to be hot and sexy! It has romance, adventure and suspence. This book is perfect to read with a glass of wine and a soak in the tub.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2013This book is a great book for anyone who enjoys crime novels (like myself) but also likes a good, intense love story. I mean, who doesn't? Just be prepared. When I say intense, these books get intense.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2010This is only the second time I have ever negatively reviewed a book. I find it humorous that the other book I disliked immensely was written by Lora Leigh, who apparently raved about this book. I love a well written book. Whether it's romance, suspense, erotica etc... it doesn't matter. this book by Lorie O'Clare is a horrible excuse for a novel. Like some of the other reviews, I found this book disjointed and frustrating to read. I forced myself to finish the book because I kept hoping it would get interesting.
The premise of the story is interesting and so much could have been done with it. Instead, Ms. O'Clare spent the majority of the book telling us how hot Grace thought Justin was and vice versa, and at the most inappropriate times. At one point, Grace gets a call in her office that there has been another brutal rape and murder. She starts to leave for the scene and Justin shuts the door and grabs her and says he won't let her go until she tells him what is bothering her (he didn't like the look on her face). She hisses at him and then he kisses her. This guy is the best the FBI has to offer?
One more example and then I'll stop. This rape/murder case takes place over a 6 week period and in all that time, Grace and Justin do almost zero investigating. All the clues are thrown in their laps and they simply ignore them. They FINALLY get around to checking the three stores that sell the men's cologne present at all the crime scenes, and they find the woman who sold a bottle to the killer. She describes him, Justin sees that there are security cameras in the store, wonders if they are real, and then leaves. On the way out, Grace says,"should we ask if the cameras are real" and he says "we will when we get proof it's our man". That's all the investigating they did that week. They meant to ask around to see if anyone saw the car they knew the killer was driving, but they never actually did that.
I can see why Ms. Leigh raved about this book. She writes in the same disjointed, confusing and irresponsible manner. Aren't there editors and publishers out there who are supposed to fix books like this before they go to print? Or stop them from getting published at all. We readers are paying good money for these books and should be able to count on a well written story.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2013Kept me involved and hard to put down at times. I am reading the second book in the series, which is not related at all to this.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2015I've had this book in my TBR pile for quite some time. I would pick it up and put it back down in favor of another story. I have read the other reviews, mostly the bad ones, and they did influence me in waiting to read the book. Well, the book made it back to the top of the TBR pile and I started reading.
The prologue shows you that the book is going to be very dark and disturbing. Kidnapping, enslavement, rape, torture and murder are part of the outline to show you Grace's backstory. The details are not extremely graphic, but if these situations disturb you I recommend you choose a different book. Keeping in mind that this is a work of fiction, I was automatically caught up in the suspense and kept reading.
After the next few chapters I was about to put the book aside. Grace and Justin seemed one dimensional and I couldn't get a feel for how they were so hot for each other after only just meeting. (It works in other books, but not in this one. At least for me it didn't.) Even the secondary characters seemed flat and uninteresting. Instead of getting in to the plot line, the story spent too much time on how Grace and Justin thought how hot and sexy the other looked to them. After a while I was thinking, "OK, already. They're hot. I get it. Move on!"
About one-third into the book, things started getting interesting. Things started popping up to show that more bad things are going to continue to happen until something is done. (I had to keep in mind that this is a work of fiction, so things will get predictable in that clues that are yelling at the H/H to be seen are completely missed. Like watching a TV crime show and knowing they only have one hour to stop a killer.)
There were a couple of twists that I didn't see coming and they kept me reading. All through the book I had to keep in mind it was fictional so that I could understand why things were happening as they did, but they still kept me interested in the book.
All in all, I liked the story. But the predictability, the obvious missing of clues to the crimes, the flat characters and constant "hot" thoughts made my rating of the book drop.
I reviewed the bad comments again after finishing the book. While I have to agree somewhat with some of their comments, I kept thinking to myself that the other reviewers had to keep in mind that this is a work of fiction. Otherwise I think they would have enjoyed the story more.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2014I enjoyed reading this novel.