And Then You Die

December 1, 1997
An American photojournalist finds herself the unwitting pawn of a terrorist scheme in this workaday thriller from Johansen (Long After Midnight), which pits the CIA and the Centers for Disease Control against a nefarious mastermind with a talent for ingeniously disguised germ warfare. Caught in a Mexican village during a mysterious, deadly epidemic, Bess Grady miraculously survives and--after she runs afoul of the local authorities--finds an unlikely ally in a hit man with the alias "Kaldak." Johansen weaves tidbits from the last few years' headlines (the latest HIV research, the Ebola virus, Saddam Hussein, the Balkan war) into a suspenseful, if preposterous, plot full of murders, narrow escapes, chases and explosions. Unfortunately, she doesn't bother with local color. Mexico, New Orleans, Wyoming, Atlanta and North Carolina all look and sound more or less the same. Worse, Johansen never fleshes out her intriguing main characters, whose uninspired dialogue--"This is most unfortunate. It could cause complications"--and trite narrative--"Underneath that harsh exterior, he was very human after all"--undermine what might have been a page-turner. Major ad/promo.

November 15, 1997
From Ugly Duckling to best-selling author: Johansen follows up with the story of photojournalist Bess Grady, who stumbles upon a terrorist plot while vacationing in Mexico.

November 1, 1997
Johansen, author of the best-sellers "The Ugly Duckling" and "Long after Midnight", returns to the pulp-thriller genre with this tale of conspiracy, greed, mass murder, and terrorism. When photojournalist Bess Grady is sent on assignment to a small town in Mexico, she unwittingly finds herself in the midst of a horrific nightmare. Every citizen of the town has died of anthrax poisoning as a result of a terrorist germ-warfare attack. Because she survived, Bess is sought by both the terrorists and a hard-hearted CIA man. The plot is filled with clever detours that twist and turn and cast suspicion on all of the main players until Bess doesn't know who to trust, although that doesn't stop her from embarking on a passionate fling with the CIA man. Fans of conspiracy thrillers will enjoy the action. ((Reviewed November 1, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)

January 1, 1998
Photojournalist Bess Grady goes to Tenajo, Mexico, with her sister to photograph the reportedly beautiful scenery there for a travel piece. What they find is a village full of dead people; only a baby girl remains alive. A detachment of soldiers arrives on the scene, and with no time to react Bess is knocked unconscious. When she wakes, her sister is dead, and she is a prisoner in a Mexican hospital. Johansen, abandoning the lush narrative style she used so effectively in her historical novels (e.g., Dark Rider, Bantam, 1995) opts for a leaner, faster-paced prose that she uses to enhance the thriller-like atmosphere here. From the first page, the reader is pulled into a realm of danger, intrigue, and suspense with a touch or romance and enough twists and turns to gladden the hearts of all of her readers. Sure to be a winner in all libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/97.]--Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights- University Heights P.L., Ohio