"A winner"

In the DC area, junior criminal defense attorney Kat Buckingham finds her fiancé James Smith dead on the kitchen floor. Detective Leary immediately arrests Kat for murder. US Marshal Harry Kincaid has been undercover watching James who is actually the sleaze Darin Ichatious, protected under the Witness Protection Program. He keeps quiet though he realizes his stakeout substantiates no one else entered or left as he would have seen them.

Sean McCoy visits Kat in jail and confesses that he is her biological father. He also tells his second wife and his five married law enforcement sons that their biological pregnant mother gave birth as she died; he gave the infant away in his grief.

Harry whisks Kat from the cell to allegedly protect her from James' killer. Harry, her overly protective five older brothers, and her dad refuse to allow her to be killer bait; then again they want her to play touch football at family gatherings, but Kat prefers tackle. She is ready to prove that she is A REAL MCCOY.

Fans of the Magnificent McCoy Men miniseries (see FOR HER EYES ONLY, LICENSE TO THRILL, YOU ONLY LOVE ONCE, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN and THE PI WHO LOVED HER) will appreciate this addition that brings back the brood. Though the audience might believe a female could never be A REAL MCCOY (don't tell the wives that), readers will accept Kat as the sixth sibling. The who-done-it is cleverly handled so that all that testosterone cannot protect the newcomer yet giving the audience a chance to see friends while the romance between the lead couple adds to the feel that Kat is a legitimate McCoy.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted March 25, 2005

Summary

In the next twenty-four hours defense attorney Kat Buckingham will discover she's adopted, her biological father is very much alive, and she has five very protective older brothers—all working in law enforcement. Oh, yeah, and she'll be wrongfully arrested...for the murder of her fiancé.

Kat always figured she could handle just about anything...but a murder rap is a little daunting, even for her. And worse, she's now being smothered by people determined to protect her—her father, her brothers...and gorgeous U.S. Marshal Harry Kincaid. Not that she minds his attention, but he's treating her as if she's helpless.

But once it's uncovered that Kat's fiancé was in the witness protection program, it becomes obvious that there's only one way to nail the killers—Kat has to act as bait. And despite her family's—and Harry's—protests, Kat willingly takes the job. After all, it's time they all learned that Kat is definitely...

A Real McCoy.