"Full of action and adventure!"

Pam Crooks writes western romances like nobody's business! They grab you right from the start and you better hang on for the ride!

After being falsely accused of murdering his brother Nathaniel in an opium den in San Francisco, Trig Mathison is thrown in jail. It's not until Judge Raymond Chandler needs him desperately that Trig is let out. It seems the Judge's daughter Carleigh inadvertently found out that her mother has been alive and in Mexico all these years and now Carleigh has taken off in an effort to find her. The judge doesn't want Carleigh to find her mother for several reasons, the most important being that she was a lady of the evening.

Trig is not only the best tracker but he has a tiny little secret the Judge doesn't know about, that of being a secret agent for the U. S. Treasury and the Judge is under investigation for the fortune he's somehow amassed. Trig turns the Judge down at first but two things make him decide to take the offer. One is the Judge is holding Trig's father ever since he illegally took his land and the second thing is Trig is entranced with Carleigh's portrait that the Judge shows him.

What Trig doesn't figure on is Carleigh's stubbornness when it comes to her mother. She's bound and determined to get her way and she even drags her little frou-frou dog with her. Will Trig ever survive this woman and her dog? What will Trig do when someone starts shooting at them? Are they after him or Carleigh? Only time will tell.

Even though this book was full of action from beginning to end, there were some wonderful lighthearted moments that just had me with a big smile on my face. I've been a fan of Pam Crooks since her very first book and look forward to each and every one of her spectacular Western romances!

Reviewed by Kathy Boswell
Posted March 24, 2003

Summary

Trig Mathison knows the danger of opium's spell—his brother died from it. And though he vows vengeance, the undercover agent wonders if a forbidden yearning will destroy him as well. The beauty he pursues—one whose very blood marks her his enemy—arouses in Trig not a desire for justice, but a hunger for love. The flower of her innocence crushed by her father's lies, Carleigh Chandler is on the run. Chased by a handsome bounty hunter, she succumbs to temptation in his arms. But will their passion be strong enough to untangle the web of deceit that ensnares them?