Light in Shadow

by Jayne Ann Krentz

Book Overview

Zoe Luce is a successful interior designer in the Arizona town of Whispering Springs who's developed an unusual career specialty-helping recently divorced clients redesign their homes, to help them forget the past and start anew. But Zoe knows that some things can't be covered up with a coat of paint. And when she senses that one of her clients may be hiding a dark secret, she enlists P.I. Ethan Truax to find the truth.

Working together, they solve...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0515136182
• ISBN13: 9780515136180
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.4" x 7.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

This author ROCKS!

Zoe Luce was an interior designer and owned a shop called Enhanced Interiors. She had talent that she considered to be a curse, walls spoke to her. Well, in a way. If any strong emotion happened in a room, such as lust or fear, it would sink into the walls. So when Zoe went into a client's bedroom and the walls "screamed", Zoe could not leave fast enough! Whatever horrible thing happened in that room was recent. The client said he was going through a divorce. Zoe believed he murdered his wife in that bedroom. Without proof, cops would laugh at her. Besides, she could be wrong. The wife could be sunning herself on a tropical beach somewhere. Zoe simply needed a computer whiz to discretely find out. Ethan Traux had taken over Truax Investigations from his uncle. Zoe would be his first case. It should have been simple. Only a few minutes on the computer to see if a lady was using her credit cards or an ATM. Instead, Ethan found a corpse. Zoe and Ethan became attracted to each other. All seemed to be going well. However, Zoe's dark past was about to catch up to her. After a year of hiding under a different name, they had finally found her! ***** Wonderful! Zoe always seemed to be bubbling over with optimism no matter how awful things became. But she sure had to tap deeply into a bottomless well of optimism to get through all this! Zoe was a strong willed character that needed an extra ordinary man in her life. Author Jayne Ann Krentz did a wonderful job in creating just such a man. This novel was like having two books in one, a murder mystery and a romantic thriller. The "client" part was a work of genius on Krentz's side to bring the couple together. The author brought back the Vastu and Feng Shui techniques that I recall being used in one of her novels a few years ago. This is a fast paced, romantic, and heart pounding thriller that I highly recommend to all.

She's Back!

I took a gamble and bought Light in Shadow without reading the reviews first. I hit the jack pot for this is vintage Krentz. Now that I have read the book and the reviews...a backward approach....I am delighted that the readers are again charmed by Ms Krentz's signature style. I too, have been disappointed in her recent works but all is forgiven with this charming tale. The story line grabs your interest from the first sentence, the plot twists and intrigues keep you on your toes and the interesting support characters are the icing on the cake. My response to the negative reviews regarding Zoe and Ethan is I definitely felt the spark and liked the other sly hints of sparks with the other characters....rather interesting. I also disagree that one husband should mirror another. Life experiences alone can change the relationship needs of an individual. I liked the fact that both characters were strong enough to stand up to one another but not so much so that every scene became a battle of the sexes. The dry humor exhibited by both was a delight. Now all I need to make the literary world right is for this level of writing to carry over to Amanda Quick novels.

Vintage Krentz is back!

The last 6 Krentz books have been less than stellar. But now she's back in stride. Characters you care about, enough of a plot to keep me reading all night--and on a work night yet. Hope the rest of the series are as good as this one.

Terrific Romantic Suspense

Crafty romantic suspense writer Jayne Ann Krentz is back again, this time with a tale chock full of greed, deceit, and unlikely romance. Interior designer Zoe Luce is quietly living her life in Whispering Springs, Arizona when a client asks her to redesign the master bedroom of his residence. But Zoe sometimes feels things that others don't, and the walls in this room "scream" that something terrible happened there. Deciding to hire a P.I. to trace the whereabouts of the client's ex-wife, Zoe hires Ethan Truax, who just took over his uncle's one-man P.I. business. Two more unlikely lovebirds would be hard to find, but Ms. Krentz credibly shows that while they are physically attracted to one another, their underlying integrity is what makes their relationship click. And finding the locale of the missing ex-wife is just the beginning of this suspenseful novel, as Zoe hires Ethan to discover who is blackmailing her to prevent them from revealing that she changed her name after she and friend Arcadia Ames escaped from the rest facility, Candle Lake Manor. Committed to the Manor by her deceased husband's family, Zoe is intent on staying free until she can expose her brother-in-law's role in her husband's death at the next board meeting. With believable romance, spellbinding suspense, and several intertwined plotlines, this latest from author Jayne Ann Krentz is one of her best yet.

Another Jayne winner!

Jayne Ann Krentz is back with another winning combination of suspenceful plot, humor, and delightful primary AND secondary characters. Somehow Krentz manages to weave mythic relational issues (love, trust, commitment, risk, honor, responsibility, family) into a magical blend that leaves you wanting to read more about Whispering Springs and Zoe, Ethan, et al. This one will be a keeper --- go ahead, buy it in hardcover!! --- because she manages to juggle plot elements and keep even seasoned "Jayne" fans (and I've been reading her since the 70s!) guessing about what REALLY happened, and what will happen next!