"Fantastic romantic thriller"

At eighteen, the Feds recruited Lilly Mansfield to make her first hit and now nineteen years later she is a hired assassin working as a contract killer for the CIA. She gets through the days by telling herself the people she kills deserve it and she is doing a patriotic duty for her country that not many people can. Gradually she isolates herself from everyone feeling burnt out except for Averill, Tina, and their thirteen-year-old daughter Zia.

When Salvatore, the head of a worldwide crime cartel kills those who Lilly regards as her family, she turns rogue because Salvatore was a CIA asset. She knows that the agency will send someone to take care of her but she never thought Lucas Swain was that man. On his part, Lucas never expects to fall for Lilly or become the instrument that would take over the assignment with Lilly that Averill and Tina never completed. Swain knows that when Lilly discovers who he really is she will want nothing to do with him.

Linda Howard always writes fantastic romantic thrillers and her latest one is no exception. Only an author of her caliber can create a heroine that is a contracted killer and have the audience care about her and hope she find a way out of this life short of death. Swain, a happy-go- lucky agent in comparison to Lilly, is a true patriot with a good heart; he is a man who risks everything for the welfare of his country. Readers will empathize with his predicament and hope he and Lilly will stop the cartel from executing the plan that would kill millions of people worldwide.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 9, 2004

Summary

If you sense someone's watching you from afar, or if you feel a shadow other than your own at your back, I might as well pack it up and call it a day.

It's a job that makes a killing. Efficient, professional, and without apology, Lily Mansfield is a hired assassin, working as a contract agent for the CIA. Her targets are the powerful and corrupt, those who can't be touched by the law.

Now, after nineteen years of service, Lily has been drawn into a dangerous game that hasn't been sanctioned, seeking vengeance for her own reasons. Each move bolder than the next, she is compromising her superiors, drawing unwanted attention, and endangering her very life. Though stress and shock have made her feel somewhat invincible and a little cocky, Lily knows that she too can be taken out in an instant. And if it's her time, so be it. She intends to go down fighting.

A CIA agent himself, Lucas Swain recognizes the signs of trauma in the line of fire. His orders: either bring her in or bring her down. Yet he too is drawn into the game with Lily Mansfield, dancing on a tightrope as he tries to avoid a major international incident while still battling a tenacious foe who is dogging their every step. Keeping laser focus on the task at hand while vigilantly watching her back, Mansfield never sees the lethal peril that lies directly in her path . . . and how loyalty has a price.