High Tide

""One night I went to bed and when I woke up, there was a dead man on top of me... "" is only one of the problems faced by Fiona Burkenhalter, embattled heroine of Deveraux's latest novel. Fiona is a hotshot at Davidson Toys in New York, and she's the obsessed creator of Kimberly, a popular Barbie-like doll. She is furious and pouty when her boss forces her to leave her beloved Kimberly for three days to negotiate a deal with a client in the Florida Everglades. In the Fort Lauderdale airport, petulant Fiona sees a man being attacked by a giant alligator and springs into action, hurling a pink bowling ball case at the beast. The alligator, however, is a mechanical contraption, and it explodes. Fiona is arrested for her heroics, and the man who just saw her destroy his $15,000 investment has to be forcibly restrained from choking her to death. Upon her release Fiona embarks on her dreaded meeting with her client and his guide, a man named Ace Montgomery, hero of many previous Deveraux adventures. Ace turns out to be the same man whose alligator Fiona incinerated, so their antipathy begets the inevitable flying sparks that camouflage mutual attraction. When Fiona's client ends up stabbed to death in her bed , Ace acts fast: he drugs Fiona and drags her off to a hotel to hide and decide what their story is going to be. By morning their photographs are splashed across the front pages, fugitives wanted for the murder. Ace and Fiona go on the lam, bickering, wearing disguises and learning about each other as they try to outrun the police and unravel the mystery. Fast-paced, suspenseful and shot through with goofy humor, Deveraux's latest (The Blessing) adventure romance should please fans who like a low danger quotient, slap-happy dialogue and a corny but sassy love story. (Nov.)