Mary Branham specializes in what she calls "airplane books," in other words, books that are short and entertaining enough for light reading on a flight. Hailing from Santa Fe, New Mexico, Branham is Assistant Director of the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian. Three Deadly Days In Spain follows Big Black Dog in Vallarta and Little Green Man in Ireland.

Sydney Reardon is a former actress who has been married three times. But it is not what the reader would think...all three husbands died tragically, leaving Sydney in her new career...doing houses. Recovering from her third husband's sudden death in a tragic accident, Sydney thinks she is delivering a seventeenth century relic to a convent in Avila, but it is actually a put-up job masterminded by her late husband's best friend's son, Santiago Farber:

"He really hated the idea of killing her. Over the years he had become adept at ending a life but this would be personal. In some perverse way it had pleased Hugo to give him the assignment."

And that isn't all. Sydney is being shadowed by a private investigator named Ben Harris, who is intelligent enough to see through the scam and help Sydney before it is too late. Sparks fly almost immediately between Ben and Sydney, and their repartee on the flight to Spain is convincing and enigmatic.

True to style Mary Branham takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of exotic locales, sprinkles her fast-paced plots with witty dialogue, and creates characters who are glamorous, intelligent, and vulnerable. Sydney is a natural beauty with a flair for life who instantly engages the reader. Ben Harris is a handsome loner. Although Branham separates them quickly, totally fakes usout with premature accounts of Ben's demise, ultimately Ben has to trailthe jewel thieves who kidnap Sydney and disappear without a trace.

Three Deadly Days In Spain takes the reader on a trip of mystery, intrigue, and escape. We are transported to a foreign locale, where Branham carefully leads us from clue to clue, scene to scene, until the surprise ending. Three Deadly Days In Spain is Branham's best yet.

Shelley Glodowski, Reviewer