FROM BOOKLIST

Ten years ago, Smith's debut thriller starring iconoclastic FBI agent Ana Grey, North of Montana, earned raves from a range of critics and writers, including Robert B. Parker, Scott Turow, and James Ellroy. Now, after a considerable hiatus, Grey is back, still a maverick FBI agent. This time, though, her credentials as a free spirit seem to hinge mainly on her willingness to rendezvous with her street-cop lover whenever he pages her for sexual trysts that get old fast. When not trysting, Grey and lover, Detective Andrew Berringer, are working on the same case, which involves the kidnapping of a teenage girl from her Santa Monica home. (The FBI is called in as part of the "new politics" of response to diverse communities, especially, as Grey sardonically observes, to the wealthier communities.) The girl from the seemingly perfect home is found to have brittle, bizarre parents, as well as friends who use her as a gopher for drugs. Grey's tough exterior breaks when the girl is returned, raped and brutalized, and a series of brutal rapes follows. North to Montana created lots of Ana Grey fans, and most of them will want to see what she's up to here.

©2003 American Library Association

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