Jayne Ann Krentz writes her modern novels under this, her real name; historical novels under Amanda Quick; and her futuristic books under Jayne Castle. I've read most of the books under all of these titles and have rarely been disappointed. Lady Godiva chocolate, she is not, nor does she pretend to be. She is more like Whitman's sampler or Lindt: a secret sweet treat that satisfies a craving but does not cost you much brain power to read them. And this book is more like an 89 cent Hershey bar. Still good, but not her best work.
Grace Elland is the secret weapon behind the Witherspoon Way, the positive thinking guru's empire, Sprague Witherspoon developed. Sadly she actually believes in these affirmations. She created the internet site and wrote the popular cookbook that is making Witherspoon rise to the top. Until, she goes over to his house when he does not show up for work and finds him dead in his bed, with a vodka bottle that reminds her of a trauma in her past sitting on the table beside him. Witherspoon does not drink vodka.
When Grace was sixteen, she went into the old insane asylum because she had heard there was a party there the night before and she wanted to know who had hooked up with who. What she finds is a little boy tied up, a dead body, and a vodka bottle. Before she can rescue the boy, the man who put him there and killed the woman drives up. She grabs the bottle and tells the boy to be prepared to run up the stairs and go for help. As the man goes down the steps, the boy flies by him and Grace almost gets by him, but he grabs hold of her. She smashes the bottle and cuts the man repeatedly before getting help. Since then she has spent a lot of time in therapy where she learned breathing techniques and other devices as well as pills to help her cope with the nightmares and memories.
Enter capitalist, Julius Arkwright, who is set up on a blind date with Grace by her best friend and her best friend's cop husband who wants Julius to check her out to see if she's the killer. The date is a disaster, but Julius leaves believing that she is innocent. Soon, however, Grace begins receiving e-mails from her boss's account that sound a shade deadly and then a rat is found in her refrigerator. Someone is stalking Grace and Julius makes himself her bodyguard.
Witherspoon left behind an enraged daughter who hated her father, her gold-digging fiancé, and two other staff members who could be behind the missing money that has left Witherspoon on the tip of collapse; not that it can go on without him.
Whether or not I want to, I really like Grace and Julius, the bored businessman who can make money in his dreams without even trying are very likable characters and worth reading about. There are plenty of suspects, but you can pretty much figure out who did it and why easily. You can still get enjoyment out of Julius's disdain over her affirmations, when his sound so much better: Trust no one and everybody has a hidden agenda because in this book his words ring true. This may be a cheap bar of chocolate, but we still eat them, because they taste good, even if they are not good for us.
Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Trust-One-Jayne-Ann-Krentz-ebook/dp/B00KWG62OU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1488989534&sr=8-2&keywords=trust+no+one
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