Lisa Marie Rice's THE ITALIAN

Lynda X · Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 1250

Lisa Marie Rice has a new book, THE ITALIAN. If you like her, you'd like this one, except. . . it's not perfect. I don't understand how I can accept her h&h having sex, usually within the first or second meeting, and yet, again and again, I do. Usually, this development annoys me in books, making the whole interlude seem tawdry and the characters seem boring. THE ITALIAN is about a judge who is trying to bring down a drug or Mafia (can't remember) crime lord for years. If you know about Italy, you probably know that the Mafia has assassinated a number of judges in real life, so in this book, the security is EXTREMELY tight for this man who has virtually given up his life to get this guy.

Unlike some of Rice's other novels with baddies, there's not a lot of coverage of the baddie and thankfully, no torture scenes. The major drawback is Rice's propensity of ending the novel very abruptly. Since she has in the past received major criticism for this, I don't understand why she doesn't include some sort of epilogue. I mean, how hard is it to write three more pages?

Bottom line: if you like LMR and are not annoyed at her recycling of characters, etc., you'd like this book. I did--with reservations.

My grade (since I still like LMR): B.

dorothy99 · Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3

Thanks for the tip..... I like Lisa Marie Rice books, but when I looked at this on amazon, I thought the cover was the oddest, most disturbing thing I'd ever seen! What is with those eyes at the top?

Kayne · Joined: 31 Mar 2007 Posts: 783

Trish B · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 1110 Location: Mid-Atlantic, USA

PeggyL · Joined: 28 Mar 2007 Posts: 43 Location: Hong Kong

tazzie · Joined: 21 Jan 2013 Posts: 3

I believe the Italian is an earlier re-issued book by LMR. Reckless Night and Hot Secrets are two follow-up novellas from her Dangerous Trilogy. Heart of Danger is her latest book.