Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Thriller
Series: John Medina Series, Book 1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Hero: Marc Chastain
Heroine: Karen Whitlaw
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: January 1998
Started On: June 14, 2010
Finished On: June 15, 2010

I went on a Linda Howard reading spree a long time back and am now re-reading some of her books, books that have made an impression on other readers and books that I remember being good enough and worthy enough for a re-read. Linda Howard is an amazing writer, her writing style never lets you down and her heroes are to die for. With the right mixture of romance, mystery and sensuality, her books always rate highly in my opinion.

Right from the start of the book, the reader is drawn into the web of mystery that surrounds the murder of two soldiers who served in the Vietnam war, one being the estranged father of Karen Whitlaw and the other the father of the larger than life CIA operative John Medina, who gets his own story in the book All the Queen’s Men published in 1999. I remember being quite disappointed with John Medina’s book since my expectations for him were at an all time high after reading about just how dangerous a hero John would turn out to be.

Anyhow, Karen learns about the murder of her father from New Orleans’s homicide detective Marc Chastain when he calls her up to tell that her father Dexter Whitlaw who had lived on the streets had been killed under suspicious circumstances as far as Marc could tell. Reeling from the sudden death of her beloved mother a couple of months back, Karen had always nursed a deep resentment for her father who had abandoned both of them when Karen was quite young. However Karen quickly makes arrangements and fly off to New Orleans where she comes face to face with Marc, the man whose velvety voice had made quite an impression on Karen, and the quick hot attraction that flares between the two is something to savor.

The slow seduction that takes place where Marc woos Karen and the scorching passion these two create with one another made me want a Marc of my own. Sigh! Unbeknown to Karen, something in her possession that her father had mailed to her mother a few months before his demise marks Karen as a target and her life quickly unfolds into one filled with danger and pitfalls wherever she turns.

A story that has an intriguing mix of politics gone awry, jealousy, murder and two characters a reader would definitely relate with, this is another book that is in the “un-putdownable” category by the author.

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