No Cure for Love

December 21, 2015
Originally published in Canada in 1995, this standalone feels dated, and given the absence of bestseller Robinson’s beloved Inspector Banks (In the Dark Places, etc.), it may appeal only to the author’s diehard fans. Most of the action takes place in Los Angeles, where British actress Sarah Broughton has found fame and fortune as a detective on an American TV show. Sarah has also attracted a stalker, who mails her letters with the usual delusional fantasies. But when the stalker refers to her by her real name (Sally), she starts to worry, and a studio exec calls in the LAPD’s Threat Management Unit. Then Sarah finds a dismembered body on the beach near her Malibu home, and the hunt for the stalker takes on real urgency. Though the stalker antagonist is less a credible character than a plot device, readers will appreciate Robinson’s fine storytelling and his authentic portrait of L.A., which Michael Connelly praises in his foreword. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency.