Product Description

Alyssa Locke is no stranger to dealing with danger. As team leader of the nation’s number one personal security company, Troubleshooters Inc., she’s seen more than her share of action, survived plenty of close calls, and holds her own with the best of them–and against the worst of them. Guarding lives is her game, and no one plays it better. But her toughest challenge will be protecting herself from a serial killer she’s been after for years–known only as “The Dentist”–who is determined to make her his ultimate trophy.

The assignment was supposed to be an easy one: teach self-defense techniques to a newly elected assemblywoman and her chief of staff after a political controversy generates a blizzard of hate mail–including death threats–from hotheads and cranks. But as soon as she mobilizes her squad of moonlighting Navy SEALs in New York City, Alyssa begins butting heads with the hard-case cop who thinks that the Troubleshooters are chasing shadows.

Until they discover a dead body. And then another. Now Alyssa really has her hands full–bodyguarding two independent, busy women, managing a murder investigation, and trying to find time for her husband, Troubleshooters operative Sam Starrett, and their infant son. Meanwhile, it wouldn’t be a Troubleshooters operation without romantic sparks and heated rivalries–and any time the SEALs of Team Sixteen are involved, there are plenty of both.

But then, while investigating a suspect, Alyssa is ambushed and suddenly finds herself imprisoned by The Dentist. Cut off from everyone she loves and relies on, Alyssa must call upon all of her strength and skill to survive this final confrontation with the sadistic monster, meanwhile trusting that her Troubleshooter teammates, led by her beloved Sam, will reach her before it’s too late.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11861 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-28
• Released on: 2009-07-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345501578
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Since her explosion onto the publishing scene more than ten years ago, Suzanne Brockmann has written more than forty books, and is now widely recognized as one of the leading voices in romantic suspense. Her work has earned her repeated appearances on the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists, as well as numerous awards, including Romance Writers of America’s #1 Favorite Book of the Year (three years running), two RITA Awards, and many Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Awards. Suzanne Brockmann lives west of Boston with her husband, author Ed Gaffney.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Prologue

 Thursday, 4 September 2008 

Friday was going to be the night. 

He knew Savannah’s schedule, knew her habits, knew exactly when she’d be alone. And on Friday night, she would be. Her superhero Navy SEAL husband had planned to be in town for the weekend, but he’d cancelled. 

Instead, he would be waiting for her. 

He couldn’t wait to see her face, couldn’t wait until she realized that she was going to die, couldn’t wait until she screamed and sobbed in fear and pain. 

And oh, it had been so long since he’d last relieved the nightmarish pressure that built up inside of him, pressing out from within his chest, making it hard to breathe, hard for his very heart to beat. 

And yes, he’d learned to control it, pushing it back, far back. Sometimes so far back, he nearly forgot he wasn’t one of them. But he never forgot for long. 

Over the past week, the pressure had returned, growing stronger and more powerful—every beat of his pulse seeming to shake him with the knowledge that it was time, it was time, it was finally time. . . . 

It was time, and he’d take her tomorrow tonight. And although he loved to linger, this one he’d kill quickly. And while he knew he’d regret and miss the power and pleasure he got from drawing out her pain, he’d still get some relief. 

And for that alone, as short term and temporary as it was destined to be, it would be good. 

But merely good—not perfect. Perfect was reserved for her. Still, he’d have that perfection soon, because he knew, without a doubt, that, upon news of Savannah’s gruesome death, she would come. 

She would come, and this game he’d been playing for all this time would begin its final quarter, this play its final act. But until then, until Friday night, he had to be patient and wait. He had a morning ritual to help him through the day. 

He’d say her name aloud—just a whisper, but it would echo in the pristine, sterile bathroom—the S’s gloriously sibilant, the K sound crisp. 

“Alyssa Locke.” 

Then he’d go into his bedroom, and pick out a picture of her from his vast collection—some that he’d taken himself, which had been a thrill—and he’d carry it with him, all day, in the breast pocket of his jacket. 

It was dangerous for him to do so. Savannah knew Alyssa well, and would ask all sorts of awkward questions if she ever saw it. He made sure she never saw it—although there had been one particularly close call. He’d had it on the table, but had swept it into the trash before Savannah got too close. He hadn’t been able to rescue it, though, before the janitor took it to the dumpster, and he’d had to print out another. 

But such risks were part of the game, and carrying the photo with him gave him the comfort and strength he needed to make it through another long, dull day. 

Today’s picture was one of his favorites. It had run in the Manchester newspaper. In it, Alyssa was a mere shadow, a shape, standing with a number of other law enforcement officers—police and FBI—at the place where he’d left one of them. Amanda Timberman. It had taken them six months to find Amanda, and unlike all of the others, he’d hoped that they never would. 

But they had, and good had come from bad when this picture was taken. 

He’d since found out that Alyssa was an investigator with a personal security firm called Troubleshooters Incorporated. She’d been hired by Amanda’s former fiancé—her job being to find Amanda, long gone missing. And find Amanda, she finally had. 

When he’d first seen this picture, he hadn’t known Alyssa from any of the other shadowy person- sized shapes in the photograph. But he knew her well now—he recognized her just from the way she was standing, from the tilt of her head. 

She thought she had both the brains and the skill to stalk and capture the serial killer that the media had dubbed “The Dentist.” She’d been after him for years. 

But now, the Dentist was stalking her. And unlike her, he always caught his prey. 

It had started on the very same day that this picture was taken— this journey he was now undertaking; a journey that would end— soon—with her blood on his hands and her pretty white teeth on a necklace he would wear close to his heart. 

Her phone rang, shrill and startling in the darkness. 

Jenn fumbled for her glasses, knocking them off her bedside table and onto the floor, peering at her alarm clock through the blur made worse by her grogginess. 

2:27 a.m. 

As she picked up her glasses, the phone rang again, and she knew it had to be Maria—notorious for her insomnia. She also knew, if she answered it, that she’d be forced to recount last night’s terrible, horrible, no- good date with Scooter Randall—an ordeal which she’d driven all the way out to Long Island to endure. 

“Maybe he’s changed since high school,” Maria had said, urging her to accept the dinner invitation. 

A clue that he hadn’t changed might’ve been the fact that, after twelve years, he was still calling himself by his high school nickname. But Maria, despite being one of the smartest people Jenn knew when it came to most things, was a complete and total idiot when it came to relationships. 

Jenn settled back in her bed, willing the call to voice mail. She knew that if Maria really, really needed her, she’d call back and she wouldn’t stop until Jenn picked up. 

But then, crap, her cell phone started ringing, too. 

Jenn rolled and grabbed for it, because although Maria could be something of a drama queen, there had been only one other time that she’d made a two- fisted phone call like this: when Jenn’s dad had been rushed to the hospital with a heart attack. 

“I’m awake,” Jenn said now. “I’m here, what’s wrong?” 

“Ford. Garage or street?” Maria’s voice was tight, clipped. 

“What?” 

“The car, Jenn. Did you park the car in the—” 

Jenn understood. “Street.” She’d gotten home last night well after the time that Vincent lowered and locked the gate to the parking garage. 

A few weeks ago, she and Maria had gotten a great deal from the wizened little man. For a fraction of the price it normally cost to keep a car in New York City, they were able to garage the beat- up Taurus that they bought at the beginning of the campaign and cleverly named “Ford”—the catch being that they didn’t have access to it from midnight to 6 a.m. 

So far, so good—except for the many nights they missed Vincent’s deadline, and had to park it on the street. 

“Get dressed and get over here,” Maria ordered. “On second thought, don’t get dressed, just get here. We need a ride to the airport, now.” 

“The airport?” Jenn asked, tucking the phone between her shoulder and ear as she pulled on the pants she’d worn on the date from hell. She kicked aside the heels she’d bought for the occasion— she was a fool to think that shoes like that made her look sexy instead of freakishly big and stupid—and stepped into her worn- out flats instead. “What airline has flights leaving at this time of—” 

“We need a ride out to Westchester,” Maria interrupted. “Van’s grandmother’s chartered a plane to San Diego, and it leaves from there. Jenn, just get over here, okay? Ken’s been badly wounded. He was shot.” 

“What?” Despite her disbelief, Jenn had heard what Maria said. Savannah’s Navy SEAL husband Ken had been shot. But the words didn’t line up with what she knew to be true. “Van told me he’s back from Iraq.” 

“He’s not in Iraq,” Maria said, as Jenn grabbed a sweatshirt and went out the door. “He’s in San Diego. He was doing some kind of bodyguard assignment as a favor for a friend.” 

“Oh, my God.” Jenn waited all of three seconds for the elevator, then bailed and took the stairs. 

Maria continued, lowering her voice. “Jenni, it looks bad. He was hit three times, twice to the chest. He’s in surgery right now, but . . .” She exhaled, hard. “I’m going to fly to California with Savannah. I’m pretty sure she’s going to find out on the flight that . . . I don’t want her to get that news alone.” 

“Oh, my God,” Jenn said again. “Should I come? I could come, too.” 

“It was a tough enough battle,” Maria said, “to talk her into letting me go. She’s already said that she wants you to stay here and hold down the fort.” 

Which made sense. They were in the middle of a political campaign, a...

Customer Reviews

Hot - and not too scary
While definitely written in the typical Troubleshooters's format of interleaved subplots told by specific characters' points of view, this novel is a bit different. This one is more suspense plot driven and the subplots stay closer to the main plot throughout the whole story. Not to worry romance devotees. Because most of the romantic relationships are already established and the one that's new moves pretty fast, there are a lot of people getting it on in this book. If you've thought some of the recent books didn't have as much feel-good romance action going on as you'd prefer, this book rather makes up for lost time. There is still character and relationship growth and development but the whodunit is the primary payoff.

Basic plot is that Alyssa takes (yet another "easy") assignment to coach a public figure in self defense while bringing along Sam and some Navy SEALS to decorate the office for a while and thus convince the heckler(s) to back off. But one heckler is close. And far from backing off, amps it up to 11. The easy assignment becomes intense and the pressure mounts. Alyssa and Sam, then Jules and Robin, work on coping with the fact that their chosen mate works in the line of fire as a matter of course, and how to leave their non-pro family members out of the action. Alyssa is also a nursing mom. Having spent last Saturday hiking with a nursing mom who left baby with grandma, the problems Alyssa encountered rang hilariously true.

The subplot with Dan Gillman I found amusing. For everyone who has ever complained that Suz's guys are too idealistic approaching relationships? Meet Dan. Here's a good looking guy looking to get some action on vacation with minimum hassle, while trying to follow the campsite rule of leave 'em better off than you found 'em. He's hot and successful and it's campy good fun until his typical vacation relationship gets thrown a few curve balls. He's got issues, yes, and he starts to work through them and has to do it with annoying BIL Izzy hanging around. (Izzy also gets a few POV scenes, but Eden is not around.)

The character Jenn adds a useful point of view - I'm so used to Jules and Robin, I forget that Robin is supposed to famous. So when Jenn muses that "the award winning actor has come to babysit, will Susan Sarandon be dropping in to do the laundry?" it reminded me again to pay attention. Plus, I think I lived in her apartment for several years. 400 sq foot studio that averaged 90F in the winter with the windows open? Check. Also had her wardrobe - not quite a 16, but really not a 14 either. Check. Lots of uber-beauties in this story, so it was nice to have a sensible, average looking, average sized, average budgeted character I related to more easily.

While the serial killer aspect is creepy, it's was not as creepy for me as the Into the Storm subplot. There was a distance to the gruesome that allowed me not to dwell on the details. For the whodunit, I guessed the killer early on. Go me. There were red herrings. I don't know if I wasn't thrown because I'm so familiar with SB's writing or because it was easy or because I'm just that good. I still enjoyed finding out if I was right and "knowing" didn't affect my ability to enjoy how the story was laid out. I only had a couple quibbles which I won't mention in case they aren't your quibbles as they were easily overlooked. (If you noticed one word being used a LOT, mention it in the comments and see if it's the one I always notice or if I just have special radar for that word.)

I had a great plan to only read a couple chapters at a time and stretch the book out all week to spend more time lingering in the story. So much for that plan; I tore through the book. The book sucked me in, pacing was excellent, I found all the subplots very balanced and I was never tempted to skip one (only a big problem for me previously in Into the Fire). The book focuses heavily on characters trying to do the right thing for themselves, their friends, their colleagues, and their families which I found refreshing and entertaining. Highly recommended, even for people who haven't followed the series.

Another "betweener" book...waiting for the next installment
3 1/2 stars

The fifteenth installment of the Troubleshooters series brings back fan favorites, Sam and Alyssa. Alyssa brings her family along on an "easy" assignment to teach Assemblywoman Maria Bonavida and her staff about personal safety and give a little added protection for someone threatening the Assemblywoman. She also brings along "big bad SEALs" Dan Gillman, Jay Lopez, and Izzy Zanella to do a little scaring off by being themselves. It is supposed to be a boondoggle trip for the SEALs who are on liberty and not getting paid for the trip except for airfare and housing. The assignment stops being fun when the threats become more serious. FBI agent Jules Cassidy arrives with his husband, Robin, in tow to add to the investigation.

I'm a bit disappointed in this book. I'm a Sam/Alyssa fan and their story worked of fairly well...though I think Sam was a bit over-the-top in places. Jules and Robin bothered me the most. I loved Robin in Force of Nature because he was fun and smart and in this one he seems to have lost a lot that...he is treated like a small child...a lot. I found it to be a bit demeaning. He was the just "the spouse," who needed a lot of hand holding.

As far as the suspense/mystery goes, Brockmann puts in plenty of red herrings, but I figured the killer out long before it was revealed. A good mystery, but not great.

This is an "in-between" book. Brockmann has put in story arcs with both Gillman and Zanella leaving me a little confused and missing something. There was definitely not enough resolution in this one. I'm thinking this is one of those books you could actually skip in a series and not feel like you missed out on much.

I'm looking forward to the 16th installment (Izzy's story) for more resolution. I also love Izzy. I understand it is the last book for a while. The books will return, but it may be a while.

For Sam & Alyssa fans, you'll love it. If you are an Izzy fan, you'll love this one, too. He was my favorite part of this story.

Really excited about the next book!
I'm not sure what was up with the reviewer ahead of me giving it one star for the price, but having read this book I just have to say it was everything I want in a Suzanne Brockmann book, it made me laugh, it made me happy and at the end it mad me so sad..... that I have to wait so long for the next one. Even with the same characters in the books every book has its own story line and it never feels repetative, unlike some authors I've read lately. I love the relationship between Gillman and Jen and I love that I hated it at first but that Brockmanns writing drew me into loving it anyway. Jeni is one of my favorite characters in a troubleshooter book, not more than Alyssa but she's pretty up there. I was also so glad to catch up with Izzy and what was going on with him, which is one of the reasons I can't wait for the next book because I really want him to get his HEA and I'm hoping in the next book it happens for him. Honestly if you love the troubleshooter books you will love this one too.