Nowhere to Run: Not Without Risk\A Man to Die For

I have over 30 of suzanne Brockman's books. I re-read them often. Am going through the "Trouble sHohooter series for the 3rd time.

Nowwhere to Run was, yet, another of Suzanne's books fillled with strong charactors and anventure. I am looking for to many more. Suzanne Jacoby.

This book was okay. Just 3 stars because I'm grading her against herself and her more recent books are much better. This is a reprint of 2 of Brockmann's earlier titles which were published in 1995.

The first was Not Without Risk. The hero Jim Keegan and the heroine Emily Marshall had been lovers 7 years before. When she found out that her current boyfriend Alex was a drug runner she agrees to have a police officer go undercover as her brother to catch him. That police officer turns out to be Jim. This is a type of plot that I don't particulary care for in that I like to read about characters from their first meeting not while they are reuniting, but I realize that's just me. The author did a good job with the story though and I found I didn't mind too much. The way they worked through their problems seemed believable. The suspense plot was fairly light and not explored in great detail. This is more romance than suspense. It does that job pretty well.

The second book was A Man to Die For. The suspense part of the plot was better developed than the first novel. It started well with undercover cop Felipe Salazar locking Carrie Brooks in the trunk of her car to save her from some bad guys and to keep his cover going. Later they are on the run together. But in this book there was a plot device that I absolutely hate not just sorta don't like.

SPOILERS

They are on the run and she thinks he's a bad guy and doesn't believe he's a cop. Everytime he convinces her to believe him, something happens to bring up some doubt and she doesn't believe him. This happens 3 times, even after she has said she loves him and will marry him. I hate it when the heroine doubts the hero. This is overused plot device in my opinion. I want to see a woman standing by a man even in the face of apparent proof he is a bad guy. That's a more more moving love story to me. And it happened at least 3 times in this book. Felipe was a wonderful character. The way he loved her was very well written. He deserves better than Carrie.

This is a common failing with Brockmann's books in my opinion. Her male characters are usually more fully developed and more sympathetic than the females and I many times wonder why exactly the hero fell in love with the heroine. Still it was an okay read.