Into the Fire

Suspense doesn’t burn any brighter and desire doesn’t run any deeper than when Suzanne Brockmann takes the helm, opens the throttle, and takes readers along for a breathless ride as she breaks the thrill barrier–again and again. With Into the Fire, Brockmann lights the fuse on her most explosive story yet.

Vinh Murphy–ex-Marine and onetime operative for the elite security firm Troubleshooters Incorporated–has been MIA ever since his wife, Angelina, was caught in a crossfire and killed during what should have been a routine bodyguard assignment. Overcome with grief, Murphy blames the neo-Nazi group known as the Freedom Network for her death. Now, years later, Freedom Network leader Tim Ebersole has been murdered–and the FBI suspects Murphy may have pulled the trigger. To prevent further bloodshed, Murphy’s friends at Troubleshooters scramble to find him and convince him to surrender peacefully.

Murphy himself can’t be sure what he did or didn’t do during the years he spent mourning and lost in an alcohol-induced fog. He does know he occasionally sought solace from Hannah Whitfield, a former police officer and the very friend who’d introduced him to his beloved late wife.

But Hannah, still grappling with the deafness that resulted from an injury sustained while on duty, was fighting her own battles. For years Hannah had feelings for Murphy, and one painful night their suffering brought them together in a way neither expected–and both regretted.

Murphy is ready to rejoin the living. As always, he finds himself knocking on Hannah’s door, and as always, his longtime friend welcomes him back into her home. Yet even as Murphy slowly rebuilds his splintered life, he continues to fight his growing feelings for Hannah.

Then he learns of Ebersole’s murder and comes to believe that the Freedom Network has targeted him–and Hannah–to avenge their leader’s death to violence. Now Murphy must face the terrifying prospect of losing another woman he loves.

As the Troubleshooters desperately search for him, Murphy races toward a deadly confrontation with the Freedom Network and ultimate choice: surrender his life in hopes that Hannah will be spared, or risk everything to salvage whatever future they may have together.

From the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers WeeklyThe 13th exciting, if long-winded, entry in bestseller Brockmann's Troubleshooters series answers a question posed in 2004's Hot Target—what happened to former Troubleshooter op Vinh Murphy? Seven years earlier, the half-Vietnamese, half–African-American agent went MIA after his wife, Angelina, was killed during a conflict with the neo-Nazi Freedom Network. Now back in California, Vinh has been suffering alcoholic blackouts in between e-mailing death threats to FN's leader, Tim Ebersole. After Ebersole's murdered and Vinh becomes the chief suspect, a sober Vinh turns to an old friend of Angelina's, a deaf former cop, for help in remembering if he did kill Ebersole. A romantic subplot involving Izzy Zannella, a navy SEAL with Team Sixteen, and Eden Gillman, the runaway teen sister of a fellow SEAL, sweetens the mix. Readers unfamiliar with the players might need a scorecard, but Brockmann ignites sufficient sparks to keep the blaze going. A jaw-dropping conclusion suggests more fireworks ahead. (July 22) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library JournalStressful love/hate relationships simmer in the ranks of the Troubleshooters and their U.S. Navy SEAL buddies in RITA Award winner Brockmann's 13th series entry (after All Through the Night). But when shots are fired, they all direct their attention instead to the neo-Nazi bad guys picking off their agents. Written in third person and told from multiple points of view, the somewhat confusing and slow-to-unfold story benefits from having two readers. Patrick G. Lawlor and Renée Raudman (co-narrators, Don't Look Down) successfully use accents, pacing, and tone to bring the large cast of characters into focus. Public libraries with a Brockmann following will want to purchase.—Juleigh Muirhead Clark, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Lib., Colonial Williamsburg Fdn., VA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.