Leon and Junior Daggett are dimwitted petty criminals who are robbing gas stations and liquor stores waiting for the big score to come along. Sociopath Roy Wade loves to kill people with his bare hands; thus he is the leader of this motley crew. When Junior is assigned his first big job of robbing a liquor store in upstate California, the two owners bloody him up forcing him to up escape with nothing to show for his efforts.

In 1985 Baltimore Catarina “Renna” Hale was attacked by her neighbor twelve year old Joey Pastorelli and would have been raped if the neighbors didn’t intervene. Reena’s father fought with Joey’s abusive dad and that night, the Hale’s family pizzeria, Sirico’s burns to the ground. Police find enough evidence to arrest Joey’s father and Joey is taken away from his mother after he burns his dog and leaves it on Reena’s doorstop.

Reena decides that she will because an arson investigator, studying hard in school to make her dream a reality. When Rena buys a house in her old neighborhood, her next door neighbor is Bo Goodnight who saw Reena at a college party years ago and fell in lust. Over the years he sighted his Dream Girl but they never met but when the pair finally get together, lust turns into something more for Bo and the commitment phobic Reena who is afraid that he might be her one and only true love. They conduct their courtship during an arson investigation in which someone is targeting Reena and the people closest to her. Reena is in a race against time to catch the killer before the body count mounts.

Once again Nora Roberts has written a wonderful romantic thriller that is sure to hit the New York Times bestseller list. Her characterization are fantastic, the firefighting scenes are full of action and suspense and the plot moves along at a fast pace. Bo’s Dream Girl is better than his fantasy of her and he is determined to woo her no matter how many obstacles she put in his path. Their love scenes are sweet, poignant sometimes downright funny. BLUE SMOKE is an example of why Ms. Roberts is one of the most popular authors writing today.

REVIEWED BY HARRIET KLAUSNER