If you remember, when I took a weekend trip to Ocean Shores with my friend, we watched Brazen on Netflix. The movie is based on a book by Nora Roberts and I finally had the chance to read it.
The plot of the book is very similar to the movie – Grace, a best-selling author, decides to visit her sister, Kathleen, who is living in Washington, D.C. after going through a divorce. In order to pay for her divorce and a private investigator, Kathleen is moonlighting as a phone sex operator named Desiree. One night after returning from a date with neighbor Ed, Grace finds Kathleen murdered. Grace sets out to find out who killed her sister and why.
This book was first published in 1988 and you can definitely tell this is not a modern book. First off, everyone is smoking; there are so many cigarettes smoked in this book. At one point, Grace wears a walkman tucked into her jeans pocket. And let’s not forget that Kathleen uses a landline for her phone sex operator job. The way that Kathleen’s killer targeted her was that he was able to tap in somehow to the phone line and he heard “Desiree” and became obsessed with her. He doesn’t seem to use a computer, however, the police do make note that the killer has some sophisticated and high-tech equipment.
I don’t want to turn this review into how the book was different from the movie but one of the things I liked about the book was that Grace does not get involved with the police investigation until the very end. In the movie, she offers to consult with the police and totally involves herself in the investigation, which I thought was a big conflict of interest. Also, one of the characters I liked in the movie was Ben, Ed’s partner. I loved all the scenes in the book with him and his wife Tess (Tess does not appear in the movie). They seem like a cute couple.
I definitely thought the book gave a better rationale for Grace involving herself in the police investigation. In the book, Grace explains that she and Kathleen sound alike so that if Grace were to sign up to be a phone sex operator who called herself “Desiree” and the killer was listening to the calls, he might hear “Desiree” and come look for her. I actually thought this was a great idea. This was much better than the movie where Alyssa Milano dresses up to pretend to be the sister on a web cam, but they don’t even look alike so I don’t know how the killer would mistake her for the sister.
I was not a huge fan of the insta-love that Ed seems to have for Grace. In fact, I didn’t feel that they had much chemistry. Ed appears to fall in love with Grace right off the bat and professes his love within a week or two before they even sleep together. Then he proposes to her right after they have sex. I just wasn’t sold on their relationship.
I think if I had read this book when it came out in 1988, I would have thought that it was edgy and controversial. Kathleen is a phone sex operator! She’s addicted to prescription drugs! The killer smokes pot and does cocaine! Scandalous! But, reading this book over 30 years later, it seemed kind of tame. I could definitely see where Nora Roberts was going here, but I didn’t find anything all too shocking.
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