Product Description

Thea Kozak is a woman who has prided herself on always being the strong one in a crisis. While she's usually not the one that starts the process, she seems to always be the one to clean up the messes--and she's had practice at it. She survived her husband's death and her sister's brutal murder and not only came through with her mind and heart intact, but has used that pain to help others. Thea is a tough yet tender-minded woman who--through twists of fate, some spectacular bits of bad timing, and her refusal to walk away from someone in trouble--has had her share of dead bodies and heartache cross her path.

Liberty or Death is the sixth Thea Kozak mystery. Thea is as strong as ever, and she will need every bit of that strength. This trouble is not of Thea's own choosing... and it threatens everything she values.

Thea is minutes away from finally marrying her long-time love Andre Lemieux--the state trooper who helped her discover the truth about her sister's death, and the one person Thea can rely on to be strong for her. But Thea is left standing at the altar, and brought horrible news of Andre's capture by forces unknown. The last place he was seen was near a small town in Maine that is a hotbed of right-wing conspiracy theorists... and lots of people with twitchy trigger fingers.

Thea knows she shouldn't get involved. Let the professionals do their job. Her job, for once, is to wait... and to pray. But that doesn't sit too well with a woman who has taken pride in being in control of much of her life and who has triumphed over adversities that would make a battle-weary veteran sag.

And when the other half of your heart is threatened, safety and self-preservation--and maybe even sanity--take a backseat.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1310293 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Patrick Henry would be proud to have his famous words used in the title of such a well-crafted, sincere book, the sixth in the Thea Kozak series (Chosen for Death, etc.). Private school consultant Thea, newly pregnant, faces perhaps the biggest crisis of her career on her wedding day-when the police inform her that a militia group has kidnapped the groom, longtime beau State Trooper Andre Lemieux, and is demanding that one of its members be released from jail. Thea's first reaction is panic, but soon she calms down enough to ask what she can do to help. The cops don't want her interfering, but they know her stubborn streak won't be placated so they enlist her aid. She assumes the character of Dora McCusick, who's supposed to be on the run from an abusive husband, and goes to Merchantville, Maine, to become a police spy. Thea/Dora gets a job waitressing at Mother Theresa's Restaurant, where she's supposed to be a "fly on the wall" and simply listen for tidbits of militia information while waiting tables. But as those who have read other books in this series know, she'll cross that line and make some members of the local militia suspicious. True-to-life dialogue and realistic characterization drive this novel of heartbreak and reward. It will please old Thea fans and make plenty of new ones.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Thea Kozack (An Educated Death) is about to marry her state policeman love, Andre Lemieux, but members of a Maine terrorist group kidnap him, demanding the release of a political prisoner. Despite her pregnancy, Thea works undercover as a waitress in an ultraconservative, backwater town in the hopes of overhearing anything that might save her man. Emotionally frazzled and physically challenged, Thea regularly struggles against verbal threats, ignorance, and petty belligerence, but one particularly mean redneck seems especially intent on following her. Believable characters, solid prose, and nerve-wracking plot recommend this to most collections. [Author Flora will be the 2003 national president of Sisters in Crime, an organization of women mystery writers.-Ed.]
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Customer Reviews

Thea in top form
Thea Kozak is in her wedding dress and about to walk down the aisle when she gets the news. Her fiance and the father of her unborn baby, Maine State Trooper Andre Lemieux, has been kidnapped by the Katahdin Constitutional Militia. This terrorist, anti-government organization wants to exchange him for one of theirs, a Jed Harding sitting in jail. Thea, knowing she'll never be able to simply watch the investigation from the sidelines, convinces the State Police to let her go undercover as a waitress in Merchantville -- the little northern town now turned hotbed for militia activity -- and see what her ears pick up. But, being Thea, it isn't long before she's not just listening but also doing and has gotten herself in as much trouble as her beloved.

LIBERTY OR DEATH, the sixth book in Kate Flora's series about the educational consultant often turned PI, Thea Kozak, has been a long time coming. And it's a bittersweet experience. Since Flora has always done an excellent job of characterizing a Maine State Trooper, I was disappointed to discover Andre hardly appears in this sequel at all. I understand the plot didn't need him (present, anyway), but I still missed him. Thea herself has toned down some. She's still sassy and in-your-face, but losing her rock seems to have made her more mature (though still willing to throw herself at danger on every other page). The description of the unofficial militia movement is accurate and timely; so is the portrayal of a small Maine town in which everybody's news is everybody else's. Flora tends toward long winded accounts of every thought going through Thea's head, but at least some of the thoughts in this book (contrary to previous enstallments) haven't already been described several times over. And while her writing style never sings, it grows more solid with each attempt. I do have a major complaint with the plot -- the Maine State Police allowing the civilian fiance of one of their Troopers to go undercover? But it does make for good fiction and I certainly enjoyed this latest addition to the Kozak world.

Thea may at times remind the reader of an oversized Nancy Drew, but in LIBERTY OR DEATH she is strong enough to make you both laugh and cry. And want more.

Kate and Thea have done it again!!
Thea Kozac just keeps getting better. This is a well written, evenly paced story that brings a new dimension to the story of Thea and her Andre. In the hands of a most skillful author, readers will laugh, cry, despair, and rejoice right along with the characters. Some of the other reviewers have revealed the basic plot. All I will add is DO NOT START this book late at night or you will get absolutely no sleep. It is impossible to put this book down until the end.

Too Unbelievable
Too over the top unbelievable for a book that was not meant to be. How can we truly believe that Thea would be allowed to go "undercover", find out so much so fast, and then return to "work" after her medical problem - just to name a few of the most ridiculous plot points?