"fabulous romantic suspense"

In 2003, FBI hostage negotiator Chief Max Bhagat saved the life of Gina Vitagliano during a terrorist incident, but he was injured. Over the next few months he went through rehab and she was there. They fell in love, but by January 2004, a desperate Gina forced her beloved to see a relationship counselor; he still hid behind his rationalizations why she needed to find someone else. Not long afterwards, she gives up at least for now and takes a medical aid assignment in Kenya. In June 2005, Jules Cassidy informs his boss Max that Gina was killed in a terrorist incident in Hamburg, Germany.

Max informs Gina's family and accompanied by an unwelcome Jules flies to Hamburg to bring the corpse home. However, at the morgue, the woman identified as Gina is not her. No clue locally gives them much to go on, but for some unknown reason Gina had flown from Kenya to Germany along with fellow aid worker Molly Anderson who has ties to former operative Jones. He is the link and bait to extract Gina from the terrorists who Max feels abducted her; now to find Jones.

The legendary Max is at THE BREAKING POINT as he feels more pain with Gina's abduction than he did during rehab when he thought death would be kinder. The multifaceted story line is more complex and tense than previous tales as it switches time frames back and forth between the events summarized in the first paragraph above, but is also a bit difficult to follow at times. The return of the openly gay Jules will please Suzanne Brockmann's fans, who wonder when he will star in a future romantic suspense.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 7, 2005