“Low Pressure” is a spine-chilling novel that should appeal to both men and women as it is primarily a complex, densely layered, fast-paced tale of murder, deception, legal corruption, cover-ups and intrigue, and the romance, although vivid, is subordinate to the central plot.

Heroine Bellamy Lyston is a reluctant object of intense media scrutiny as the result of penning a blockbuster best-selling murder mystery based on the tragic killing of her older sister 18 years earlier. Although she used a pseudonym in an attempt to shelter her family from painful memories, an investigative reporter who learns the book is factual exposes her identity and unwittingly puts her in danger and makes her the vulnerable target of a ruthless, unknown assailant.

Bellamy was 12 when precocious 16-year-old Susan was murdered during a harrowing Memorial Day storm. Haunted by repressed memories surfacing during the writing of the book, Bellamy begins her own investigation of what may have been a miscarriage of justice.

Susan’s boyfriend was swiftly tried as an adult, convicted and sentenced to life in prison that effectively became a death sentence for him when he was stabbed to death by another inmate before his family could appeal the case. Bellamy is pushed by her terminally ill father’s wish to resolve lingering questions. She is aided in her investigation by charter pilot Denton Carter, an original suspect in the case.

Without giving away the many surprising twists, the tension mounts as dramatically as the psychological chills of a taut suspense movie leaving the readers on the edge of their seats.

Having devoured the advance reader copy of “Low Pressure” in one late-night reading session, unwilling to turn off the light and set the book aside lest the heroine, Bellamy Lyston, walk into a life-threatening situation without me to gasp a warning, “don’t walk into that house!,” I predict another immediate and well-deserved best-seller for author Sandra Brown.

Simon and Schuster’s website quotes as her motto, “Don’t just stand there, get to work.” Judging from her prolific output of more than 70 books and climbing, with staggering sales figures of 60 New York Times best-sellers in excess of 80 million copies sold worldwide in 33 languages, these are, indeed, words to live by.

Brown is one of several top-ranked, successful writers, among them Catherine Coulter, Linda Howard and Nora Roberts, who also began their careers in the romance genre where they honed their craft and mastered the demands of tight production deadlines and have succeeded in crossing over to thriller suspense novels in the very popular and highly competitive cross-over suspense genre.

Brown has written under a number of pseudonyms, debuting as Rachel Ryan in 1981 with five romance novels, briefly appearing in print as Laura Jordan and for several years as prolific Erin St. Claire with Harlequin/Silhouette before publishing exclusively under her own name.

She is a native Texan who attended Texas Christian University as an English major who left before completing her degree for her own true love, Michael Brown, to whom she has been married for more than 40 years.

Brown worked as a TV weathercaster and features reporter before accepting her husband’s challenge to write her own book. Her legions of readers should send him a thank-you card!