Nora Roberts’ Hot Ice, one of her older standalone books from the late 80’s, is a halfway decent caper novel. Thief Douglas Lord, betrayed by the man who’s hired him to steal valuable papers pointing the way to a lost treasure from the French Revolution, is thrust across the path of the young heirness Whitney MacAllister–who promptly decides that teaming up with Doug will be the biggest adventure of her life, and never mind his occupying the shady side of the law.
Our hero and heroine journey from New York to Paris to Madagascar, staying the obligatory step or two ahead of their pursuers all the way. There’s some good descriptive passages of the country they trek through in Madagascar, and a lot of enjoyable snarky chemistry between the two before they finally give in to the inevitable and declare their feelings for each other. All of it is pretty fluffy, though, as is the villain, who we know to be evil mostly because Doug speaks of him in Suitably Ominous Phrases; unfortunately, we never really get to see the villain being particularly villainous on camera. Not too bad of a way to kill time, though, and I was a sucker for its vaguely Remington-Steele-ish flavor. Three stars.
