Jacquie D’Alessandro’s latest offering Sleepless at Midnight
In this story, the hero made two promises at his father’s deathbed and combines his efforts by hosting a house party at his estate to search for a hidden fortune while looking over heiresses as prospective brides. He becomes attracted to the sister of an invited widow even though she herself is penniless and he’s considering proposing to her best friend when murder strikes fear into all their hearts. After several red herrings, they eventually solve the murder and after coming to the realization that not everything is as it seems, they are able to solve the mystery of the hidden fortune and he fufills both promises, ensuring they both get what they want without compromise.
I felt D’Alessandro was unecessarily coy with the reader as she attempted to hide the object of the hero’s searching from the heroine. Tying in the thread where the heroine and her friends steal bits of the gentlemen’s wardrobes to build the perfect man as they read Frankenstein was amusing. Without spoiling the ending, the identity of the bad guy caught me off guard. I should have seen it coming, but was distracted by the love story. I felt D’Alessandro accomplished the story goals set out in the opening of the book, but I think the middle and ending of the book weren’t as tight and as focused as the beginning.