Years ago, Patsy Simonetti was an awkward, skinny, annoying kid. Now, she’s Mara Simon, twice divorced, and a fledgling producer who has come to a picturesque town in South Carolina to shoot a movie. She’s got a good script, a top-notch production team and a big star, and all seems well. But one of her locations is near a sand dune that is being methodically demolished by forensic anthropologist Timothy John (TJ) McCloud. And he won’t budge.

TJ and Mara go way back. He knew her when she was plain old Pats: her late brother (for whose death TJ blames himself) was one of his best friends and she knew the McCloud family well. So Mara and TJ meet, argue, lust, have wild sex at a party, sulk, and then the story kicks in. To sum it up, TJ is trying to find evidence of a war crime, and Mara is trying to become a successful movie producer. She and TJ fall in love. The end.

I really have nothing to complain about as regards the style of McCloud’s Woman. There are very few awkward turns of phrase, the story moves along nicely, the author fills in the backstory so the reader is not lost, but I could only read a chapter or two at a time.

Why?

It’s the characters – I did not like them at all.

I have to like the characters to enjoy a book. No, I don’t demand that they be Miss Paragon and Mr. Perfect. I like flawed characters; I like imperfect people and have read any number of books where I thought the character begins as a total jerk and end up as someone I like – or even love. Reggie Davenport from Mary Jo Putney’s The Rake is a classic example. I am willing to wait for the characters to grow on me, but TJ and Mara never did. I didn’t like them in the beginning and I didn’t like them after I finished the book. Frankly they would have fit in well in the law offices of Whiny, Sullen, Moody and Petulant.

Perhaps a reader who doesn’t find the characters as offputting as I did will enjoy this book more. I wanted to like it since I love scientist heroes, but the unpleasant characters made it impossible for me to enjoy McCloud’s Woman at all.