Leisure, $5.99, ISBN 0-8439-4747-0
Contemporary Romance, 2000

The ultimate ditz and her oversexed scientist sex toy that caused a worldwide heatwave in High Energy are back! This time around, they continue their wacky love affair with themselves in a screwball mystery. Or maybe I should say screw loose mystery, as the whole mystery is as credible as a hippopotamus becoming the president of South Africa. And bad news to fans of hot steamy kitty sex that is Miss Joy’s trademark – the sex scenes here are really short and sanitized. Well, sex is out of place in a Scooby-Doo episode, so there’s that.

Zanita and Tyber are back to conduct physics experiments in a haunted house. That’s it. There are crazy friends, crazy suspects, and crazy Doc Evans spending their days in Martha Vineyard’s Florencia Inn trying to discover if ghosts really exist and if so, why the hell can’t they just leave our two lovebirds to shag in peace. And since Tyber and Zanita are already mating like rabbits in book one, in book two, there’s little to sustain the momentum or emotional impact.

Apart from, of course, tricks lifted right out of the Scooby-Doo archives. Slamming doors, creaky stairs, groaning sounds (wait, that’s our hero and heroine), obvious red herrings… my only disappointment is Zanita not pulling off the ghosts’ rubber masks to reveal – gasp! – it’s, it’s… okay, I won’t spoil the story.

High Intensity is pure fluff. It’s a perfect beach read, undemanding on the emotions, and absolutely fun while it lasts. Then, afterwards, I’ll sit up and try to remember what I’ve just read that has me laughing out loud. And I can’t recall anything, for the life of me.