Kiss Me While I Sleep by
Linda Howard
pbk out August 04
(Piatkus)
at £10.99
Another thriller with a tough CIA lady, this time Lily Mansfield who was
recruited by them as a contract assassin at the tender age of eighteen. She
is now in her 'thirties and living in France, where she commits the mortal
sin of a private killing. An Italian godfather type, Salvatore, has had her
two best friends and her almost-adopted daughter killed for blowing up
his laboratory where he is involved in a vaccine scam. Lily devotes
months in getting close to Salvatore, so that she can poison him with a
doctored bottle of wine. Now his son is after her, as well as the CIA,
as Salvatore was one of their 'assets'.
The Agency sends Lucas Swain, another trouble-shooter out to dispose of
Lily, but the inevitable happens and they fall in love. Together they finish
the work that Lily's friends died for, destroying the laboratory where not
only is an influenza vaccine being made, but also the virus that it protects
- the scam being that when released, the world-wide pandemic will make
them rich by selling the cure.
A far-fetched story, but well-written and exciting in the 'what-happens-
next' department. Chapter 26 is entirely devoted to sexual intercourse,
which is certainly anatomically, if not politically, correct! When we think
back to the criminal prosecutions for D H Lawrence's Lady Chatterley
and poor old Hank Janson's bosomy covers in the 'fifties, we realise
what an enlightened age we now live in!
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
Kiss Me While I Sleep by
Linda Howard
