"Enthralling Romantic Suspense"

Howard's latest romantic suspense thriller hinges on an Alias type theme when Lily Mansfield, a twenty year veteran CIA assassin, turns rogue and kills a man without the CIA's approval. Because Salvatore Nervi orchestrated the murder of Lily's closest friends, Averill and Tina, and their daughter Zia, Lily exacts revenge by poisoning Salvatore's wine, assuring his swift death.

Though Lily becomes severely ill after imbibing only a sip of the tainted wine, her maladies enable her to buy enough time to escape from Paris and return there unnoticed by the Nervi family. But her rogue actions do not escape the notice of the CIA, especially when Agent Lucas Swain is sent to Paris with the orders to take her out of the game. The two meet and become allies, when Lucas presents himself as a gun for hire, not CIA. When Lily agrees to take a job bombing a Nervi laboratory that is manufacturing a vaccination which will make millions after they release a deadly avian-flu like virus on the human population, Lucas is her cohort, as they plot the laboratory's destruction. As Lucas and Lily's business relationship turns personal, the love scenes are sensuous and suitably steamy, though the two fear that their love affair will end all too soon.

Non-stop suspense poised against well-developed romance fills the pages of this captivating novel. Likely Howard's best work to date; readers won't be able to put this one down.

Reviewed by Sheri Melnick
Posted August 14, 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.