Samhain Publishing, $4.50, ISBN 978-1-60504-219-0
Paranormal Romance, 2008

I like reading Marie Treanor’s stories because, whether the story work for me or not, so far they have always been interesting. The author likes to switch things up a little so that her stories never feel derivative or a rehash of some overused plot line. Ariadne’s Thread is no different. This one is a wacky crime caper with romance, and it’s an interesting one.

Ariadne “Addie” McSween is a single mother in Glasgow who, on this particular Hogmanay night, decides to add breaking and entering into her list of qualifications. Her brother Jim and his accomplices Shug and Malky have been paid to break into a spooky big mansion to rob the contents of a safe, and Addie decides that she has best tag along in case the bumbling goons make a mess of things and get into deep trouble. Unfortunately, while wandering around the house, she bumps into the owner of the place, John Maxwell.

There is a party in the house and John, unaware that he has uninvited guests, assumes that she is someone on the guest list. She decides to flirt with him while biding her time to allow her brother and his friends to escape. Unfortunately, those goons decide to carry out a few plans of their own that complicate Addie’s life. Also, the house is haunted, John is said to have murdered his wife, and there is a mystery or two to be solved.

I don’t find the romance believable given that the whole thing takes place in lightning speed and the story is too busy to devote much space to the development of the romance. As a result, the characters come off on the rather flat side. Still, they are pleasant types rather than irritating twits, so that’s something. I find the other aspects of the story more interesting, really. The heroine pulls off something really stupid early in the story (staying back to flirt with the hero when she should be making her way to the exit) but the rest of the story has some intriguing twists and turns to make up for that rather contrived display of stupidity from Addie.

Adriadne’s Thread may not work too well for me as a romance, but it’s still able to provide some pretty good entertainment.