cover image Restraint

Restraint

Sherry Sonnett, Shery Sonnett. Simon & Schuster, $20.5 (319pp) ISBN 978-0-671-87958-7

Sonnett's fresh and gripping first novel, about a Los Angeles financial advisor who ventures into an outlaw life, combines suspense, sex and philosophical ruminations on morality, identity and gender. Vega Johnson, attractive and moderately successful, lives safely on the perimeters of the city's big-money, glamour world until her amicable ex-husband introduces her to the exciting Paul Lattimer. Vega quickly senses that Paul isn't a legitimate businessman, but the mystery surrounding him only fuels her attraction to him. Together, they embark on a passionate affair that unleashes a sort of ruthless courage in Vega as she begins questioning and then overstepping sexual and moral boundaries, especially those that prescribe certain behaviors for women. Sonnett's strong, sure and evocative prose creates an appropriately hard-edged mood for the narrative, complementing her heroine's metamorphosis and generating genuine suspense as readers are made to wonder just how far Vega will go. Having created a credible female superwoman, however, the author thwarts expectations by confining Vega to a relatively innocuous crime, an ill-fated scheme to blackmail and scam wealthy investors-at least, until the shocking climax that caps this impressive novel with just the right note of cynical fatalism. (Jan.)