It’s not always easy to evaluate a work on its own merits, rather than as a part of an author’s body of work. My initial reaction to Ms. Jennings’ latest book was very positive. But then I put the book down, and the wheels turned, the echoes came back, and one refrain started repeating itself with disturbing frequency: “Yeah, I read that somewhere before.”

Lucy spent the first fourteen years of her life running around the world with her spy-tastic parents and learning how to hide her feelings really, really well. But that came to an end in the kingdom of Nhala (a fictitious Nepal-like state), where her parents were gunned down before her eyes. She returned to the U.S. an orphan, and throughout boarding school, university, and her current job as a manuscript restorer at the Smithsonian, she keeps her life boring and comfortable, thank you very much; twice-weekly hair appointments and wine is all she needs.

But then she receives a call. The CIA have discovered the existence of a virus that can infect, kill, and completely disintegrate a human body within 24 hours, a virus that is being created in an underground laboratory outside of Himalayan Nhala. And dear old Uncle Edwin, aka the CIA Director, needs her knowledge of Nhala and former friendship with the Nhalan princess to join forces with Captain Mike Schafer and retrieve vital information concerning the virus left behind in Nhala.

The effects of the virus are described horrifically, and it should strike a chord with most people because the circumstances of the creation, and dissemination, of such a virus aren’t, unfortunately, even remotely beyond the realm of probability. (Of the biology behind the virus, I can’t comment.) Nhala’s corrupt general, terrorists of all nationalities, are all too present realities in nations across the world, which makes the story sobering, but it’s also heartening to imagine and hope for happy endings in the midst of current tragedies. The action scenes are thrilling, the setting a very nice change from the norm, and as a suspense novel, Darkness at Dawn works very well.

What doesn’t work so work so well? Well, Lucy and Mike, which I think you’ll agree is major. I suppose Lucy’s not a bad heroine, but all that perfection wears easily. She’s beautiful. She’s smart. She has overcome personal difficulties. She’s the perfect undercover spy. And she’s beautiful. Get the picture? I sure did. If I really stretched it, I suppose I could accuse her of being high maintenance (twice-weekly hair treatments? Seriously?), but I was really a bit too bored to bother.

As for Mike, all I really remember about him is that he thinks Lucy is beautiful. And smart. And amazing for overcoming personal difficulties. Oh, and she’s beautiful. That’s about it. Ask me about his background, and I honestly couldn’t even tell you.

It’s not completely fair, but I can’t help comparing this book to some of the author’s other works, under the pseudonym Lisa Marie Rice. The suspense, and to be fair, the smoothness of the prose, have always been strengths of Ms. Jennings. But the heroines are often defined by their personal histories and beauty, whereas the heroes are identified by their worship of the heroine. Darkness at Dawn is no different, and I think if you keep your requirements low and focus on the plot, you won’t be disappointed. But taken as part of a whole, I’m sensing a trend that, with each subsequent book, works less and less for me.