72 Hours
Shannon StaceyRomantic suspense
Available from Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 1-59998-040-1
June 2006
| Alex, Carmen and Gallagher work for the Devlin Group, an organization of highly trained individuals who usually take jobs at the request of the government when jurisdictional issues prevent our government’s involvement. The group is owned and managed by Sean Devlin who, unbeknownst to everyone but Gallagher, is also Alex Rossi, the Devlin Group’s best and most dangerous spy-boy. Alex’s partner and lover for many years, until he shot her, is still the love of his life even though she hasn’t spoken to him since. Suddenly, Grace is coming to see him. She still remains close friends with Carmen and Sean, though she didn’t tell Sean why she needs to see Alex or that she still secretly loves Alex. But she is certain that a man who cares so much about catching the criminal that he’d shoot right through his lover’s body to get him, is not a man capable of love. She has to stop loving Alex. The doctor who treated her bullet wound had informed her she carried the child of the man who’d just betrayed and shot her. Now Grace’s eight year old son, Danny, has been kidnapped. The ransom is Alex Rossi. The moment Alex sees Danny’s picture he knows Danny is his son. He also recognizes the kidnapper’s voice as belonging to Ricardo Escobar, the man he thought he’d killed when he’d shot through Grace and left his dead body in a burning building eight years ago. Even more bizarre is that Escobar’s boss is the man who murdered Alex’s mother when he was about Danny’s age; the man he’s been searching for all these years. This case is supposed to be about stopping a disgruntled scientist from selling a deadly bio-toxin to the highest bidder, but Alex’s past keeps slamming into his present, making it personal. And all of that is in just the first three chapters of the book.
I adored this book. Ms. Stacey’s writer’s voice is extraordinary; I easily understood everything about her unique and thrilling plot even though it was intricate and complicated. The characters in this book are so sharp and animated; they step off the pages and come alive. As long as they’ve known each other, Alex and Grace each shock each other with the staggering magnitude of the secrets they’ve managed to keep from each other. The action is non-stop when they team up, just like old times, to pull off the spy mission, after which Alex and Grace revert to their old way of working off that adrenaline rush. It makes you wonder how they ever stayed apart because they are so hot together it wouldn’t be possible to get sex like that anywhere else. Then the action is full speed again when they risk everything to rescue their son. This book is fast paced and exciting, whether from the sexual tension or the suspenseful tension, it doesn’t matter. Both make 72 Hours by Shannon Stacey an exceptional read.
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Reviewer: Karen H. |
