Review of Sleepwalker by Karen Robards

Publisher: Gallery Books
Format Read: Hardcover

Release Date: December 17, 2011
Buying Links:  Amazon   The Book Depository  Barnes & Noble

Book Blurb (from goodreads):

It’s not that Micayla Lange is afraid of the clinking she hears coming from the first floor of the empty McMansion she’s housesitting for her uncle Nicco. She’s a cop, after all. It’s just that finding out her boyfriend was cheating on her was enough drama for one night. Now she’s alone on New Year’s Eve, wearing flannel pajamas and wielding a Glock 22 as she zeroes in on the unmistakable source of the sound: Uncle Nicco’s private office.

Jason Davis steals things for a living, so unexpected developments are a natural part of the job. Getting caught red-handed by a hot, pigtail-sporting police officer in what is supposed to be a gangster’s deserted house is just one more twist in the game. Kind of like finding incriminating photos in Nicco Marino’s safe, only to discover the cop—and the security cameras—have gotten a real good look at his face.

Unfortunately for Mick, she also got a good look at the damned pictures. Her “uncle” might love her like family, but if he knows she’s seen evidence that implicates him in the murder of a city councilman, she doesn’t like her chances. Which is why she’s having a hard time reconciling her professional instincts with what she is rapidly concluding is an inescapable fact: She’s about to help a criminal get away with a suitcase full of stolen money. And she’s going with him.

Mick and Jason’s race for their lives hurtles them through the dangerous Michigan wilderness on speedboat and snowmobile. As their adventure heats up and their enemies close in, Mick is torn between her duty to the force and the combustible passion engulfing her and her unlikely partner in crime. She’ll have to turn Jason in sooner or later…if they survive. But will they ever get a second chance at love? 

Quote:

Okay, the guy was a certified hunk. It made no difference to anything. He was still a thief, she was still going to place him under arrest first chance she got and they were still stuck in this deadly game of hide-and-seek together for now.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. The maxim pooped into her head as she watched him rearrange his coat, the one that earlier he'd given her to wear, so that it would be exposed to more of the heat, if and when any emerged from the so far under-producing stove. What a strange, twisted world it had become when her ***** *** *** **** (hidden due to spoiler - Bea), most of whom she'd been friendly with for years, had become the enemy, while the thief who had robbed them was her one ally in what was turning into a fight to survive.

Reviewed By: Bea

Bea's Thoughts: 

There was a time I really reading a book by Robards but in recent years I've been disappointed and this one was no different. It may be time for me to move on and give up on Robards. This story has some of her typical elements: good girl with a tragedy in her past, the bad boy with the heart of gold, and unlikely scenarios. It's the same old, same old with nothing new. There are plot holes, convenient and unlikely coincidences.

The leads, Mick and Jason, are both likable if not compelling. Mick is a staunch law and order police officer, while Jason is a Robin Hood style thief. At first, Mick believes Jason to be an ordinary thief but as they work together to escape her "uncle's" men, a process that takes MUCH too long, about a third of the book but only about 24 hours, she starts to see a different side. When they escape to his home, she learns more about his past, which opens up more plot holes. Much of the action is predictable and the sexual tension between Mick and Jason is not as strong as it could be, nor is the love affair. The love between them happens quickly and with little development, it's just there.

The first third to half of the book, which is mostly Mick and Jason on the run, should have been exciting and nerve-wracking; instead I kept looking at the clock, and checking ahead in the book, trying to guess when Robards would move forward. Their adventure should have emphasized and tightened both the moral and sexual tension between them but instead it dragged on and on with little in the way of character development. As the situation heats up with Marino's men, the story picks up steam and Mick finds herself making decisions and choices even more difficult than going on the run with Jason, a thief. When her career and family are at stake, the tension builds but so do the unlikely coincidences and yet more plot holes.

"Sleepwalker" is an okay book, not great, not awful, but it could have been so much better. Unless you're a diehard Robards fan, I'd suggest skipping this one.

I received this book from the publisher for review.