All Night Long

An exciting novel of passion, murder, small-town secrets, and scandal brought to light.

Shy, studious Irene Stenson and wild, privileged Pamela Webb had been the best of friends for one short high school summer. Their friendship ended the night Pamela dropped Irene off at home-and Irene walked in to discover her parents' bodies on the kitchen floor. It was ruled a murder-suicide, and Irene fled the northern California town of Dunsley. But seventeen years later, when Pamela sends a cryptic e-mail asking for help, Irene returns to her hometown to find her old friend has died suddenly, leaving behind a lot of ugly, unanswered questions.

Caught up in a firestorm of desperate deceit and long-buried secrets, Irene knows it would probably be smarter to just pack up and leave Dunsley behind again, but her reporter's instinct-and her own hunger to know the truth-compel her to extend her stay at the local lodge. Even more compelling is the man who runs the place-a hazel-eyed ex-Marine who's as used to giving orders as Irene is to ignoring them. Luke Danner can see the terror beneath Irene Stenson's confident exterior-and he is intent on protecting her. But he is also driven by passions of his own, and together they will risk far more than local gossip to sort out what happened to Pamela Webb, and what really happened on that long-ago summer night. . . .

"Krentz's latest fast-paced, well-plotted romantic thriller takes place in the tiny Napa Valley village of Dunster — perhaps named after the Amanda Quick heroine Emma Dunster. A mysterious e-mail from a childhood friend, Pamela Webb, draws big-city reporter Irene Stenson home, but when Irene arrives, Pamela is dead, apparently of a drug overdose. Handsome but damaged ex-Marine Luke Danner, who owns the lodge where Irene is staying, helps her look into the case. The plot thickens when Pamela's house gets torched shortly after she dies, and soon Irene and Luke follow a trail that leads to Pamela's father, a powerful senator who may have played a role in the death of Irene's parents when she was a young girl. When Senator Webb's PR flack is found murdered after getting caught up in a blackmail scheme and Luke and Irene start their predictable but torrid romance, Krentz sets up a series of compelling confrontations, as Irene comes up with information that could jeopardize Webb's impending White House run. The dialogue, which dominates the book, is strong throughout; the plot is tight. Flaws like secondary-character overload and one-dimensional takes on politics aside, this is an impressive page-turner from a master of the genre." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

When Irene Stenson is summoned to her hometown 17 years after the murder-suicide of her parents, her reporter's instinct, her hunger to know the truth, and a compelling ex-Marine lead her to risk far more than local gossip to sort out what happened to the best friend who summoned her--and what really happened the night her parents died.

Jayne Ann Krentz is the author of forty New York Times bestsellers, including Falling Awake, Truth or Dare, Light in Shadow, and the Eclipse Bay trilogy, as well as futuristic and historical romance novels written under the names Jayne Castle and Amanda Quick, respectively.