Killing Time

December 10, 2012
Bestseller Gerard (Last Man Standing) works her successful formula of sexy special ops heroes and romantic suspense in this middling stand-alone. CIA attorney Eva Salinas needs to know what happened on the botched black ops mission in Afghanistan that killed her husband. Only ex-operative Mike Brown has the answers. Baffling the reader, Eva tracks Mike to a foreign country, lures him to a hotel room, drugs him, ties him up, and questions him at gunpoint. Considering his abduction and Eva’s story of a mysterious flash drive of classified files, Mike thinks Eva is nuts—until someone tries to kill them both. Danger-fueled romantic tension heats up as an investigation leads them to a sprawling international conspiracy linking American survivalist militias, Mexican cartels, and the Taliban. Sizzling chemistry will allow readers to forgive some rather contrived plot developments.

November 15, 2012
Eight years ago, Mike Brown was railroaded into taking the blame for a military operation in Afghanistan gone horribly awry, and he's spent every day since then trying to forget. CIA attorney Eva Salinas suspects both foul play and Mike Brown; she's determined to get some answers, though she may get them both killed trying. When a mysterious file shows up on Eva Salinas' desk with information that directly contradicts the official report of her husband's death, it leads her to more and more questions and finally to Mike Brown, one of only three survivors of the fatal engagement and the one on whom the whole disaster was pinned. She doesn't trust the guy, but she's pretty sure his story is closer to the truth than the military version. All she wanted was a few answers, but what she gets are an attempt on her life and the realization that some very important people want her--and Mike Brown--dead. Thankfully, Brown has some valuable connections (tie-ins from Gerard's Bodyguards and Black Ops Inc. series), since by unearthing dangerous secrets, Mike and Eva are sudden targets of a powerful villain who'd like to keep his past and present crimes deeply buried. Bringing the traitor to ground will take Eva and Mike from Lima, Peru, to Washington, D.C., to a remote paramilitary compound in Idaho, and it will force each of them to face some difficult truths and confront an unwelcome sizzling attraction. Romantic suspense favorite Gerard is known for her fast-paced, special-ops-based books, and this is the first in her new One-Eyed Jacks series. From the intensely captivating opening scene to the last tender moment, Gerard takes the reader on an emotionally complex yet action-packed roller-coaster ride of romance and conflict, capitalizing on both sexual and situational tension. Mike and Eva leap off the page as smart, resourceful yet damaged characters who find solace and sanctuary in each other and their shared journey toward truth and redemption. Gerard hits the mark with this addition to her unique and successful brand of special-ops romantic suspense.

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