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Heir Today

by J. J. and Bette Golden Lamb

Heir Today is a collaboration between a married couple, J. J. and Bette Golden Lamb. In addition to the snappy title (a take on the famous saying (Here Today, Gone Tomorrow) this murder mystery also presents us with a romance to die for – something very unusual in a marriage! One can't help but wonder if the multiple stresses supplied by any collaboration are as non-evident in the real lives of the Lambs as they are in the novel. At any rate, these two very professional individuals have written a delightful story; full of intrigue, danger, and even delight.

Paige Boylan Alper and her husband Max are both investigative reporters. Paige and her only sibling, a twin sister named Sheryl, lost their seldom-seen Uncle Jock to what was supposedly a hit-and-run accident five years ago. Now Paige gets a notice from an heir-tracing company that her uncle had left them a quarter million. Except that the company's tracing fee is half that much!

Paige and Max decide – much to the anger of Sheryl – that they'll look for the entire amount themselves, and disregard the greedy heir-tracing company. This catapults both of them into the adventures of a lifetime – not only do they discover that Uncle Jock was murdered, but become the target of a Chinese Triad head, are stripped, beaten, threatened, become part-time nudists, escape while on fire and travel to New York and Hong Kong!

Heir Today is a wonderful book; forceful, scary, full of greed, corruption and suspense – then lightened by the romantic and sexy interludes of Paige and Max, the two prime characters. J.J. and Bette Golden Lamb make their characters so real you can't help but either love or hate them. Heir Today is a treasure hunt in more ways than one.

Although I haven't read any of either of these two authors separate writings, I suspect that the collaboration between both a man and woman (married or not) is the secret of success in this book. The male and female viewpoints are bound to be different, but combining the two as they do in Heir Today supplies the reader with an unforgettable impact. Heir Today is a must-read for any murder-mystery fan.

Alan Paul Curtis

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