Dead Reckoning
Sandra R. Moore
Silhouette Bombshell, Jul 2006, $4.99
ISBN: 037351414X

Though she detested her late grandfather, Chris Hampton appreciates that he left her his luxurious yacht Obsession though that needed repair. She diligently works on the vessel, but is short cash until the DEA offers her a deal she cannot refuse. They will provide her with the capital needed to fix the boat, if she helps them catch her nasty brother-in-law, drug kingpin Jerome. Chris has a greater incentive to agree; this might be the opportunity to save her sister Natalie, who has just informed her that she is scared of her abusive husband.

DEA Agent Connor McClellan is assigned to protect Chris. However, his being there does not prevent attacks on her by most likely the thugs of either Jerome or a business associate. She concludes that someone inside the DEA is working for the enemy and though she is half way in love with Connor, he is the most likely culprit as few besides him has the insider information that was handed over to the enemy.

Courageous Chris, needing to rescue her sibling, has reached a point of DEAD RECKONING as she must choose whether to trust in love or no one when she confronts Jerome; she makes the fast-paced thriller work as she wonders if the man who has stolen her heart is just another Jerome clone, a hunk seducing a dumb broad. Romantic suspense fans will join Chris and Connor on the aptly named Obsession as they speed to a final confrontation of the heart and with a dangerous felon willing to kill his wife, his sister-in-law, and a DEA agent.

Harriet Klausner