Title:	Smokescreen
	Author:	Iris Johansen
	Published:	July 30, 2019, Grand Central Publishing
	No. of Pages:	432
	Cover Price:	$28.00 Hardcover, $10.99 Kindle

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Smokescreen is the 26th installment of the Eve Duncan series. Eve, a forensic pathologist, is manipulated to go to Africa by a pushy journalist, Jill Cassidy, to do the skulls of children who were victims of a massacre. But when she gets there, she finds that Cassidy has an alternate agenda and gets involved in political violence that is happening there. Eve is in danger, as well as her husband who travels there to be with her and help solve the problems the country is having.

Although Johansen does a good job of developing the characters, they aren’t all that likeable. They aren’t nice to each other and they don’t interact well together. In fact, readers may find that they don’t really care what happens to them. Johansen is known for her excellent storytelling abilities, but in this novel, they are non-existent. The story doesn’t flow, and readers may find that they don’t really care. Even though Eve Duncan is the official protagonist, she is mostly in the background and Jill Cassidy seems to be the main character here.

The novel contains quite a bit of sex and sexual innuendo, as well as descriptions of horrific violence, enough, that it may turn off readers who prefer the bestselling suspense authors who choose to leave those things out. And while there are twists and turns, and building suspense, it certainly won’t keep readers on the edges of their seats. Even though Johansen has a reputation for writing excellent novels, this isn’t one of them, and Eve Duncan aficionados will most likely be the only ones who enjoy it. Most readers will probably want to skip this one; it really isn’t that great and since there are so many good novels out there that are spellbinding, they should choose an alternative.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.