Product Description

From New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance comes a chilling tale of suspense, where romance turns deadly at the hands of a man whose heart is filled with...

CRUEL INTENT

On a dating site, singleatheart.com, bored housewives can find romance with married men looking for sex without strings. But these "married singles" are flirting with more than just their vows. At the heart of this seemingly innocent service, a vengeful computer hacker is playing games with people's lives...and deaths.

Ex-television journalist Ali Reynolds just wants a break from excitement. In the midst of a remodel, the last thing she expects is a murder investigation that will stop the construction on her home. But when the savagely murdered body of stay-at-home mom Morgan Forester is found, Ali's contractor Bryan is the prime suspect. Bryan swears he has nothing to do with his wife's murder -- but as the investigation progresses Ali seems to be the only resident of Sedona who believes him.

Determined to prove Bryan's innocence, Ali unknowingly lands herself directly in the path of a calculating killer. In a world filled with encrypted computer traps and life-threatening lies, will Ali be able to decode the actions of a ruthless man determined to destroy women -- before he uses his wicked website to find her?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #266343 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416563792
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
As if remodeling an old mansion near picturesque Sedona, Ariz., isn't stress enough for Ali Reynolds, the plucky former TV newscaster must also deal with cybernetic lonely hearts, frustrated lust and murder in bestseller Jance's uneven fourth Ali Reynolds thriller (after Hand of Evil). After serial killer Peter Winter claims his fifth victim, who happens to be the unfaithful wife of Ali's contractor, Bryan Forester, homicide detective Dave Holman suspects Bryan did it. At considerable personal risk, Ali has to clear Bryan in order to get her house ready for Thanksgiving dinner with her gossipy, meddling mother, Edie; her son, Chris; Chris's amputee fiancée; sometime boyfriend Holman; and the rest of her cozily predictable entourage. A too conveniently noted license plate number and some unlikely Taser-wielding by Edie undermine credibility. Still, Jance's trademark breathless pace compensates for stale situations and shallow characterizations. Author tour. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. American Mystery Award winner Jance's (www.jajance.com) fourth entry in his Ali Reynolds series finds the ex-television journalist defending her contractor when he's accused of having murdered his wife. Ali is mercifully no longer blogging at cutlooseblog.com, a narrative element that weighed down previous books in this series. The text is well written, engaging, and humorous, and the audio production, too, is of stellar quality, with actress Karen Ziemba giving each character a distinct personality. Other factors making this the best series offering to date are the addition of new characters and a tighter plot. Recommended.—Nicole A. Cooke, Montclair State Univ. Lib., NJ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
During a career that started in the mid-1980s, Jance has honed her talent for writing entertaining, accessible mysteries that readers can zip through in a weekend. That’s certainly the case with her latest Ali Reynolds novel, a lightweight mystery about fortysomething Reynolds, a magnet for trouble, who apparently just wants to get on with ordinary life. The suspense part comes in the form of one Peter Winter, who introduces himself as the novel opens, quickly revealing that  his favorite pastimes are identity theft and bludgeoning women who visit his Web site, Singleatheart.com. When Ali’s contractor is suspected of murdering his wife, Ali’s loyalty to him kicks in and, predictably, her support and her curiosity compromise her own safety as well as that of others she holds dear. Characters introduced previously are accorded a bit more definition here (especially Ali’s mother, who proves that, as well as being pushy, she’s just as resourceful and brave as her daughter). Consider this as mostly a pleasant diversion for backyard or beach rather than a thrilling page-turner. --Stephanie Zvirin

Customer Reviews

The Web Stalker
We often hear of the dangers from predators lurking on the internet. Now, prolific mystery writer, J.A.Jance, has written a nicely chilling and satisfying tale of a psychopath stalking women on the web. He uses a web site, singleatheart.com, that attracts married women looking for sex with someone besides their husband. Ex-TV journalist Ali Reynolds (You may have met her in Jance's Hand of Evil, Web of Evil, and Edge of Evil.) becomes interested when the wife of the building contractor restoring her house is brutally murdered. Naturally, the husband is suspected, but Ali does not believe it. She starts snooping, finds the web site, and innocently draws the attention of the psychopath. After that, the story plunges into breathtaking suspense, as the murderer decides that Ali is a threat, and he must find her and kill her. It comes to a great climax in a thoroughly enjoyable story.

disappointing work from a very good author
JA Jance is one of the authors whose books I buy in hardcover as soon as they come out. I follow and look forward to both her Joanna Brady and JP Beaumont series. When heard that she started another series, this with Ali Reynolds, I couldn't wait to try it out.

This is the last in that series I'll read. I expect detectives, police, rescue workers and so on to approach trouble. I can even deal with an intellectual non-professional like Miss Marple or the title characters in the current TV series Numbers and Mentalist working along with the door-bangers and gun-carriers to solve the mystery. However, I just can't buy into a retired newscaster stumbling upon mayhem and murder, then being better focused and smarter than the law enforcement professionals.

In addition to all that, the underlying plot line is quite plausible, but Jance focused more on the involvement of the characters with each other than on the mystery. Other authors, such as John Harvey in Lonely Hearts (ISBN-10: 1932859446) did a much better job with the same concept.

This book took me through a long plane ride. If I had had the ability to put it down and switch to a different book, I would have.

Fast-Paced, Gripping and Dripping with Tension
Ex California Newswoman Ali Reynolds is both remodeling her dream home and trying to get re-established in the laid back Mountain Community of Sedona, Arizona when her contractor, Bryan Morgan's wife Morgan is found murdered and Bryan is the prime suspect, so says Ali's on again off again main squeeze Yavapai Co. Sheriff's Detective Dave Holman.

Ali, who believes herself a good judge of character, doesn't believe Bryan killed his wife, but Dave keeps getting more evidence, so Ali investigates and finds out Morgan wasn't exactly a content stay at home mom. In fact she was apparently a bit B-O-R-E-D, because she'd been a member of a dating service that specialized in married woman getting a little on the side.

This is a clue, a big one, so Ali joins the service herself, to see if she can find out anything about Morgan, but unknown to her the creator of the website, emergency room physician Peter Winter, has a side occupation that is just the opposite of saving lives, in fact he's into taking them, he's a serial killer and now he has Ali in his sites.

Like every novel by J.A. Jance this one will have you on the edge of your seat. I'll admit that I was pretty much into Joanna Brady and didn't think I was going to like Ali at all, but we're four books into the series now and I'm liking her just fine. And I think you'll like this book just fine too as it's fast-paced, gripping and dripping with tension.