Amy Comfort is a real estate agent on Misplaced Island, a small
island off the coast of Washington. She moved there to escape the stress of
the fast-paced real estate game in Seattle, and has led a pretty cloistered
life so far. Owen Sweet is a private investigator from Seattle who buys an
old Victorian house on Misplaced Island from Amy and moves to the island for
his own reasons.
From the moment Amy and Owen meet, sparks fly, but neither realizes the
other is interested until Amy hires Owen as an investigator. Her aunt
Bernice has recently become engaged to Arthur Crabshaw and Amy feels there
is something not quite right about him. She wants Owen to pose as her
fiancé and travel with her to Villantry, Washington, to investigate
Crabshaw.
In Villantry, Amy and Owen come across a thirty-year old mystery that brings
them into contact with danger and lets them explore the possibilities
surrounding their connecting rooms in the hotel.
This story is part of an anthology called Everlasting Love, which also
includes stories from Linda Howard, Kasey Michaels, Linda Lael Miller, and
Carla Neggers. Although "Connecting Rooms" has the least to do with the
title "Everlasting Love" than the other four stories, it is in my opinion
the best story in the book.
On the other hand, the story does not match up to Jayne Ann Krentz's usual
standards. This can probably be attributed to the fact that this is not a
full-length book, but I didn't feel the characters were fully developed as
her characters tend to be, and the suspense did not build. In the end, the
motivations of the characters were missing.
As a short story, though, "Connecting Rooms" is an enjoyable read, and has
most of the plot elements present in Jayne Ann Krentz' work. I wish that
this were a full-length book so the story could be more developed; as is, I
feel that the tale ends before it begins. True fans would enjoy it, but
newcomers to her writing might not.
Rebecca Brynteson
