If you like your erotica with a little bit of contemporary suspense–or would that be your contemporary suspense with a triple helping of dark erotica? Wrong Place, Wrong Time? by Ann Jacobs certainly walks that line. Billed as a sequel to Tip of the Iceberg, we revisit Casey and TJ Weldon from the earlier book, but the focus is two other characters, Darlene Jackson, widow of Travis, and Vlad Ivanov, the FBI plant in Travis's football team who has come to investigate Travis's murder.

There are parallels between the books. In Iceberg, Casey was a grieving widower. In Wrong Place, Wrong Time? Darlene is a widow, albeit one whose husband Travis was murdered during a tryst with a stripper. In Iceberg, the couple has a BDSM relationship. In Wrong Place, Wrong Time? Darlene and Travis's relationship had been a D/s relationship gone bad. Fortunately for Darlene, Vlad also enjoys consensual kink. (I won't be talking about the ménage...)

They mastermind a trap to catch the killer by visiting a ritzy dungeon in Malibu--the one where Darlene and her murdered husband used to go-- and using Darlene as bait to catch the murderer.

Because of the subject matter, it is inevitable that a lot of the story focuses on erotica--especially since the point of view is not handled as if professionally part of a sting, but from the perspectives of involved participants. And they are about as involved as they can get, to the point where race becomes an issue to Darlene's parents. Plenty of obstacles, plenty of Ann Jacobs signature brand of sex.

Reviewed by Maîtresse
© Sept 2007