Mr. Perfect was the third book by Linda Howard to be published in hardback. The book is available in paperback now. I have the hardback version. I got it as soon as it came out, and have read it several times since then. Linda Howard is one of my favorite authors. I love her books. Mr. Perfect, like all of her recent books, is a romantic suspense novel.

PLOT

The book begins with a prologue that takes place in Denver in 1975. When I first read the book, I knew basically what the book was about from reading the book flaps. At that time, it seemed like the events in the prologue were completely unrelated to the plot, but they aren't. You'll see how the prologue ties into the book once you get into it. The rest of the book takes place in Warren Michigan in 2000.

Jaine Bright was sleeping when her neighbor arrived home at 3 a.m., driving a car that needs a new muffler and slamming doors. All the noise he made woke her up. She wasn't happy. She had just recently bought the house, and in the short time she has lived there she has had a few encounters with him. None of them were pleasant. Jaine is convinced he is a drunk and possibly a drug dealer. She is afraid of him. He left his outside light on, which was shining right in Jaine's eyes. She had to pull her blinds in order to be able to sleep, so she was being forced to rely on her alarm to wake her up. Alarms rarely wake her up, though sometimes they disturb her enough that she swats at it to shut it off. She once woke up and found the alarm on the floor. Sunlight always wakes her up on time, so that is why she sleeps with the blinds up. The next morning the alarm does wake her up, but it had been going off for almost an hour by the time it did wake her up. I have actually slept through my alarm going off before, but never for an hour. Once it took 45 minutes before it woke me up, and that was when I was extremely tired. So I can believe that Jaine could sleep through her alarm going off.

Jaine had to rush around and skip breakfast so that she could try to get to work on time. She was a bit annoyed that BooBoo, her mother's cat, chose that morning to not jump on her bed and wake her up demanding his breakfast. If he had done that, she wouldn't be running late. Her parents are on vacation and Jaine was picked to catsit. BooBoo is not happy about his lodgings, and he is taking it out on her furniture. Jaine's older sister, Shelley was upset because she wasn't picked to catsit. Jaine was also picked to keep her dad's classic sports car in her garage, which ticked her brother Dave off. Jaine didn't understand why she got picked to watch either the cat or the car, let alone both. She found it very inconvenient. She had a cat destroying her furniture and she couldn't park her car, a Viper, in her own garage. Jaine shared her dad's love of sports cars.
When she was leaving, she backed into her trash can and knocked it into her neighbor's trash can. Both cans were metal, so that made a lot of noise. He came out and grumbled about how much noise she was making and how he couldn't get any sleep. That was the last straw for Jaine since he has made all that noise the night before and woke her up. She tells him off, using some colorful language. He then tells her that he is a cop, shocking her. The next morning, she is talking to a neighbor, and she double checks to see if he is really a cop. She also finds out that his name is Sam. Jaine and Sam have another argument a little later that morning because she wakes him up mowing her lawn. Sam has been working a lot of hours on a task force. Jaine and Sam get along better after that. They get to know each other better.

Jaine does get to work late, and she has to work over to make the time up. That evening she meets three women, Marci, Luna, and T.J., who also work at Hammerstead Technology. The women have been friends for a long time. They meet every Friday night for dinner at a local restaurant. They start off talking about their day, but they end up talking about men. Jaine shares her encounter with Sam. The other women talk about problems they are having with either their boyfriends or husband. Then they end up talking about the qualities they would want in their perfect man. Marci pulls out some paper and starts writing the things down in a list. A list of requirements for the perfect man is born. The list starts off with things like faithful and nice, but it gets a bit racy further on. They were just having some fun and enjoying themselves. They never meant for anyone else to see the list.

When she gets to work on Monday morning, Jaine discovers that the list ended up in the company newsletter. I'm not saying how that happened. The List is the talk of the company. The four women aren't identified by name in the newsletter, but it is only a matter of time before their identities are discovered. Local news stations learn about The List and do stories on it. The List is all over the internet. Jaine's brother and sister are both upset with her about The List, saying how embarrassing it is for them. They both attack Jaine about it, and she responds by telling them both off. T.J. is worried her husband is going to be furious about The List. Marci is worried her current boyfriend is going to be upset about it too. The story goes national and the women are in the spotlight. They go on one of the national morning shows. Most people see the list as light hearted fun, though some men at the company didn't seem to see the humor in it. Someone is very upset by the list. All four women receive some strange phone calls relating to the list. Then one of them is murdered.

Sam in involved in the case because of Jaine. Throughout the rest of the book, the killer is waiting to strike again. The other women continue to receive the strange phone calls. Sam is working to keep them safe. I haven't given away any spoilers in this review. I have just talked about things that happen in the beginning of the book, and I have been vague about some of those things. There are many other things that happen in the book.

This is a great book. I love it. Mr. Perfect is a very enjoyable, entertaining book. It is light reading meant for enjoyment. I got the book when it was first published and I have read it again many times. I enjoy the book every time I read it. It keeps my interest throughout the whole book. There is not a boring moment anywhere in the book. Mr. Perfect is well written and very descriptive, like all Linda Howard books I have read. It was easy for me to picture the characters and what was happening. I thought that the list part of the plot was very original. Not so much that a group of friends would talk about that and make up a list, but that it would gain so much media attention, and lead to murder.

Mr. Perfecthas romance, mystery, some suspense and some funny scenes here and there. Some of the scenes with BooBoo are very funny. The romance part of the book deals with the relationship between Jaine and Sam. Once they stop arguing over waking each other up, they fall for each other rather quickly. There are some scenes that contain sexual situations. They aren't the main focus of the book, but they are there. These scenes are descriptive, so they could offend some people. Jaine and Sam have a few frank discussions. When they are writing the list, the women get a bit blunt with some of their requirements. If you don't like romance books in general, or are offended by descriptive sexual scenes, then this is not the book for you.

The mystery and suspense parts of the book deal with the person that is so upset over the list that they start stalking the women, even killing someone. Since Sam is a cop and involved with Jaine, he works on the case to find the killer. The mystery isn't as complex as some others, but it isn't extremely easy to figure out either. There are some scenes here and there that are suspenseful. Some things that happen in the book are predictable, but not everything. There were many things that happened that surprised me when I first read the book.

There is swearing in the book. There does seem to be a little more than in some books I have read, but it isn't as excessive as some books or movies. Jaine does have a tendency to use some colorful language at times. She is trying to stop that. She has to pay her friends a quarter each every time they catch her swearing. The word that rhymes with luck does show up several times in Mr. Perfect. Not as many times as in some books or movie where every other word out of a characters mouth is that word, but it does show up several times throughout the course of the book. A slang term for a certain body part is used once or twice two. If language like I have just described offends you, then this isn't a book you should read.

The characters of Jaine and Sam are well developed. None of the other characters are as well developed as those two. Marci, Luna, and T.J. are developed enough for how much they are in the book. Some characters are only in a few scenes, so they aren't really developed at all.

CHARACTERS

Jaine Bright - Her name was supposed to be Janine, but the hospital goofed on her birth certificate, and her mom decided to keep it that way. She recently bought her first house. She is stuck catsitting her mom's cat and watching her dad's classic sports car while her parents are on vacation. An alarm clock rarely, if ever, wakes her up. She works in the payroll department of a technology company. She and 3 friends make up a list of qualities they want in the perfect man. She becomes involved with her neighbor after she gets to know him better.

Sam - Jaine's neighbor. He is a cop. He is on a task force and has been working some weird hours. He knows about the list and doesn't see what the big deal is. He and Jaine become involved. He works on the murder case because of his involvement with Jaine. He wants to keep her and the other two women safe.

Marci - One of Jaine's friends from work. She is the oldest of the four women. She is involved with a man named Brick. He is younger than her and has no job. She is supporting him. She is the one that writes the list down when the women start talking about it. She isn't too concerned about the publicity over the list, though she does worry that Brick will get upset.

Luna - One of Jaine's friends from work. She is the youngest of the group. She is very pretty. She is dating a football player, but there is trouble in the relationship because he keeps cheating on her when he is out of town.

T.J. - Another of the friends. She is the only one that is married. She is worried that her husband will leave her over the list. Then she decides not to try to keep it from him. They have been having some problems. The other women think her husband is a jerk.

Shelley - Jaine's sister. She is ticked off because she wasn't chosen to catsit BooBoo when their parents went on vacation. She is the oldest. She is married and has kids. She is upset with Jaine about the list when it goes public, but she is there for her sister later when things start happening.

Mr. Perfect is one of my favorite books. It is very enjoyable. You don't have to do a lot of thinking while reading it. People who like romantic suspense novels should like this books. Fans of Linda Howard should definitely read this one. The book is worth reading if you like this type of book. If you don't, then this isn't the book for you.

Mr. Perfect
Linda Howard
Pocket Books, 2000
Hardback Edition
343 pages
$24.95 US
$36.95 CAN
ISBN # - 0-671-03406-5

Recommended: Yes