by Sandra Kitt

In Close Encounters, author Sandra Kitt isn't satisfied with simply using the writer's method of developing two opposite characters and giving them a dramatic confrontation. Not only are her characters of different races, they're of different worlds, and 'dramatic confrontation' doesn't begin to explain their meeting. Lee Grafton is a white policeman, and Carol Taggert is a black art professor. When Carol is wounded in a police bust--and Lee is the probable shooter--it seems inevitable that they should return to the comforts of what is familiar. But Carol and Lee both find that their lives have changed in ways they can share with no one else.

As in her previous works, including Between Friends, Family Affairs, and Significant Others, Sandra Kitt tackles the complexities of interracial relationships with a sensitivity and realism that acknowledges without simplifying the inherent challenges of such relationships in our culture. That Carol and Lee are joined together by a common trauma is not surprising. That they both carefully approach the relationship with awareness of the potential superficiality of that connection is authentic and true. As both characters begin to see beyond each other's initial appearance, their own sense of identity also evolves beyond their race and profession.

Kitt's writing is strong, her plot dramatic, and her voice refreshing. Close Encounters works equally well as a suspense novel or as a romance novel, but most readers will be able to appreciate the deeper values that Kitt is espousing. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien