A vulnerable, innocent woman; a man who behaves in a manner that would make a doting mother cringe in shame. Ah, Diana Palmer has written another book.

When Josette Langley was fifteen, she was nearly raped at a party. The boy she accused said she led him on and then lied about the rape. Rookie cop Marc Brannon believed him, and testified in court to that effect. The boy was acquitted, and Josette was branded with a reputation as a vicious, lying tease.

Several years later, when Josette was in college, she and Marc fell in love. But he treated her with great cruelty, believing her to be a vicious, lying tease. Soon thereafter she attended a party during which a prominent businessman was murdered. Josette’s testimony implicated Marc’s best friend in the murder. But because she was considered to be a vicious, lying tease who would untruthfully cry rape, her testimony was disregarded.

Two more years go by. A brutal execution-style murder has taken place, and Marc is the Texas Ranger assigned to the case. Josette, who works in the office of the Texas attorney general, is assigned to investigate as well, even though this crime seems to be intimately connected to the one in which she was involved two years before. Will Marc and Josette be able to work together, in spite of their tempestuous past?

If you are familiar with Palmer’s books, you know the drill. Josette is an innocent who still loves Marc in spite of it all. Marc is sorry for ruining her life, but too proud to admit his guilt, so instead he baits her. As I’ve said elsewhere on this site, I kind of like the Palmer formula, but it is, most certainly, a formula. In this book, the protagonists go through the motions of the formula as though it were a centuries-old stately dance.

Unfortunately, the dance is too-frequently interrupted by the incredibly obvious so-called mystery they’re investigating. I recognized the villain from the very beginning, and I found it extremely boring to watch Marc and Josette spend three hundred pages investigating each and every clue that falls into their laps. This is the kind of book in which career criminals have trademarks; a bad guy will always wear, for instance, a certain type of shoes when he goes to murder someone. Then a person will be murdered, and the lady next door will say, “I noticed his shoes.” Oh, please!

Die-hard Diana Palmer fans may enjoy this novel; several heroes and heroines of previous books pop by, and there’s at least one cameo appearance by the hero of an upcoming novel. I don’t really mind the fact that the romance contained no particular surprises. But the fact that the suspense plot was not even remotely as suspenseful as your average episode of Miami Vice really killed my enjoyment of the book.

I could deal with a routine romance if the mystery was exciting; I wouldn’t mind a silly mystery if the romance sizzled. But pair a predictable romance with an obvious mystery, and you have, quite simply, a tedious book.