Former CIA-analyst-turned-author Francine Mathews delivers the goods in this page-turning debut of a husband-and-wife agent team involved in a terrorist plot, one that results in the kidnapping of the American vice president and a threat to destabilize the entire European continent. Caroline Carmichael's husband, Eric, died when the terrorist group known as 30 April blew up a plane full of innocent travelers. Two years later a massive explosion in Germany's new capital city results in the capture of U.S. vice president Sophie Payne. A man who looks suspiciously like Eric is photographed leading the kidnappers. Caroline's colleagues in the intelligence community set her up to be the so-called cutout: the pawn whose invisible presence will conceal the risky contact between a man who may be a rogue agent and the handler who set him on his bloody path. Fans of the spy genre who've been languishing in the literary wasteland created by the death of the Evil Empire will be delighted with Mathews's nail-biting narrative, great pacing, and ability to create complex, multidimensional characters in this novel of revenge, betrayal, and global politics. Her secondary characters, especially Sophie Payne and the conflicted young son of the psychopath — who will sacrifice anyone who stands in his way, including his own child-are very well-drawn. But it's Caroline we hope to see again in a sequel to this suspenseful thriller.

From Publishers Weekly

Picking up where Mathews's action-packed spy thriller The Cutout (2001) left off, brassy, resilient CIA intelligence analyst Catherine Carmichael sifts through the shrapnel after her clash in Europe with a faction of neo-Nazi killers called 30 April (Hitler's death date). Deadly 30 April operative Daniel Becker, "a Tim McVeigh in the making," begins his stateside killing spree by distributing ricin-laced water to D.C. marathoners. As hundreds die, Becker then shoots the CIA director and sets his sights on Catherine, who not long ago discovered that her spy husband, Eric, previously thought dead, is alive. But he's in Berlin, his identity has been exposed and high-ranking CIA officials ("enemies with the faces of friends") have labeled him a 30 April terrorist. With her planned resignation stalled, Catherine focuses on getting Eric out of Germany, chasing Becker and dodging the advances of CIA legal eagle Tom Shephard, whom she'd enticed romantically after Eric was pronounced MIA. A child abduction and more calculated assassination attempts keep Catherine on the run. Mathews, a former CIA intelligence analyst, dexterously serves up strong suspense and crisp espionage maneuvers. With Caroline Carmichael at the wheel, it's a riveting, wild ride right to the nail-biting conclusion.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Mathews, a former CIA intelligence analyst, dexterously serves up strong suspense and crisp espionage maneuvers. With Caroline Carmichael at the wheel, it’s a riveting, wild ride right to the nail-biting conclusion."--*Publishers Weekly

"Mathews makes it all impossible not to gasp at. She also makes [her heroine] Caroline Carmichael such a complicated and real person that we never doubt her existence for a moment."--Chicago Tribune

"Mathews hits the ground running, coming across like an interesting mix of Robert Ludlum and Thomas Harris.... BLOWN is an edge-of-your-seat summertime thriller."--The Denver Post
*

From the Hardcover edition.

Amazon.com Review

During Nantucket's annual Christmas Stroll, the island's shop windows are filled with quaint wool blankets and antique barometers in an attempt to add some holiday cheer (and tourist dollars) to the area by encouraging wealthy mainlanders out to the island. But when a boatload of tourists rolls by a floating corpse on the way into town, it puts an inevitable damper on the festivities.

The drowned body turns out to be that of a young Harvard scholar-turned-scalloper with needle marks in his arm, and Merry is called home from vacation by her father, police chief John Folger, to investigate the drug-induced accident. Investigate an accident? Merry decides her father must know more than he's telling and, with a quick stop at the morgue, her hunch is confirmed. How did her father know to look for the pinprick-sized needle marks in the man's upper arm? Why did her father so confidently mention heroin as the cause of death when the patient's autopsy suggests otherwise: the pupil in his one remaining eye is dilated rather than constricted, the usual sign of heroin use.

Merry's fully aware of her precarious situation. By solving the case, she'll most likely uncover the damaging evidence that her father's withholding; by failing to solve it, she'll lose her father's professional respect, which Merry's afraid she may have already lost after having botched her last homicide case. But she can't stop puzzling over one question: Why would a man with something to hide want his own daughter to investigate the case?

Mathews has used the Nantucket backdrop to full effect; the island's raw, blustery weather sets an eerie scene, whether it's during a young woman's phone call to her dead friend or when two teenagers dredge up scallops and some revealing jetsam. Mathews may have tried to cover too much ground in Death in a Cold Hard Light, bringing Merry's professional credibility as well as her relationship with her father and her soon-to-be fiancé into the picture, but the book is at its most intriguing when it focuses on the puzzling case itself. --Kris Law

From Library Journal

Nantucket police detective Merry Folger (The Lems of the North, LJ 9/1/96) is called back from vacation with her beloved Peter Mason by her police chief father to investigate the murder/drowning of young Jay Santorski, who has taken a break from his Harvard studies to wait tables and work as a part-time scalloper. Jay seems to have been too talented, too good to have died in the frigid winter waters, but needle marks on his arm indicate drug abuse. Matt Bailey, the Nantucket policeman whom Merry has never liked, is also missing, and Merry is unhappy with the way the case just cannot make sense. Environmental pollution and wealth from ill-gotten gains bring Merry to a sad conclusion and promise of more in the series to come. Mathews writes appealingly, making her characters human, fallible, and thoughtful and her story line always believable. Essential for all mystery collections, as is the author's Jane Austen series under her pen name Stephanie Barron.
-AAlice DiNizo, Raritan P. L., NJ
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Amazon.com Review

Even if you never get to visit Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts, a good deal of its sunny charm and foggy mystery are on tap in Francine Mathews's books about local police detective Meredith Folger. This time out, a dog digging on a beach uncovers a human skeleton--setting Folger off on a search for the link between old and new murders. As always, Mathews knows how to balance the cozy details of island life with the harsher realities of crime and punishment. Her last Nantucket saga, Death in Rough Water, is available in paperback.

From Library Journal

Detective Meredith Folger of the Nantucket police relishes the thought of solving an eight-year-old murder, especially since the initial missing person's investigation was flubbed by an incompetent. Meredith feels that she "owes" the dead woman, a prominent female psychiatrist, some kind of resolution regardless of their impact on her children?the same children (offspring of the woman's last lover) who discovered the body. Vivid description, good interrogative technique, psychological undercurrents, and island atmosphere characterize this good Nantucket series.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Will Hunter is used to being the New Kid; Harrisburg High School is his fifth new school in less than three years. By now, he knows not to be fooled by the bright pep rallies, the wholesome jocks, the innocent cheerleaders. He knows the evil lurking underneath. It's the same evil that took his dad eight years ago: the same evil he battles every day. Natalie Holand's life fell apart the night her sister Emily disappeared. No one believes her when she tells them what she saw: yellow and green eyes, glowing beneath the surface of the water in which Emily supposedly drowned. And Emily isn't the only person to go missing in Harrisburg lately. The town is changing, not for the better, and Natalie doesn't know why. What she does know is that, whatever's happening, it's bad, and the New Kid is right in the middle of it. Because Will's got a secret even bigger than Harrisburg's...and there's more to it than even he knows.

Elizabeth knows what’s expected of her, perfection. She’s the daughter of an Earl and expected to marry well, say and do the right things with a smile on her face when inside she’s dying for a chance to escape. Thanks to an inheritance her godmother left her years ago, her chance will come with her next birthday. Her hopes of escape abruptly end when Robert, her childhood nemesis that she hasn’t seen in over fourteen years, comes back into her life and does everything he can to drive her out of her mind even as he steals her heart.

He hated her.

At least, he tried to hate her, but it was so damn difficult to hate someone that he couldn’t live without. He tried to ignore her, tried to focus on anything but her, but nothing worked. Somehow she made her way into his heart and started to make him want things that he never though possible, made him smile and laugh even while she drove him out of his mind and started a legacy by turning him into…..

A Bradford.

Done with being the world's biggest pushover, Haley decides that things are going to change starting with the aggravating neighbor who has too much charm and not enough restraint. What she didn't expect was to be sucked into his world, but Haley has a game plan and she won't let herself forget just what the bad boy next door is capable of.

The last thing Jason expected was for his little shy neighbor to go Rambo on him over some ruined flowers. After he decides to take her under his wing he can't help but notice that she fits very nicely in his life. Now the only thing left is to convince her that this is anything but a game.

Zoe is used to taking care of herself and has long ago accepted that if anything bad was going to happen, it was going to happen to her. So when she loses her job over something most bosses would probably be happy with and her life starts going down hill from there she doesn't expect it to get any better. She certainly didn't expect any help from the loud jerk next door, but then again she has nothing to lose so puts her trust in him and hopes for the best. What she didn't expect was the once in a lifetime opportunity that he offers her through an arrangement where they both benefit and no one is supposed to get hurt, but she should have known better because her luck has never been that good.

Like most Bradfords, Trevor has a soft spot for food, but that's about all. He leads a pretty straightforward life and likes to keep things simple and that includes his relationships. He wants the perfect woman and knows exactly what she'll be like. So when he discovers much to his horror that he's thinking about his frumpy little neighbor he decides the best way to get his head straight is by working her out of his system. He'll keep her around, but only until he finds perfection.

There’s nothing worse than living next door to your childhood nemesis, except maybe being forced to share your dream project with him, being blackmailed into going along with something that was just wrong on so many levels, and having your hot cocoa stolen by the person that drove you to drink it in the first place.

As long as she has plenty of hot cocoa, a pair of pliers on hand and is able to resist Connor O’Neil’s bad boy charm then Rory James should be able to make it through this project with her sanity intact. If not…..

She’d probably face a few more nights in jail, have a few more restraining orders slapped against her and lose her heart to the man that ruined her life.

Es el local nocturno más infame de la ciudad, un caldo de cultivo en ebullición para los acuerdos turbios y el libertinaje. La muerte sórdida de Philip Stilwell tiene una onda expansiva tremenda en el Alibi Club... porque hay algo más en la prematura muerte de Stilwell que un simple juego sexual que se les ha ido de las manos. Su asesinato y el intento desesperado de evitar que un arma letal caiga en manos de los alemanes serán los cabos que acabarán urdiendo una trama complicada de traición, pasión y espionaje, relacionada con el Alibi Club... y el secreto más explosivo de la guerra. Mientras los alemanes marchan sobre París y la crisis continúa su escalada, cuatro personajes extraordinarios se ven arrastrados a un torbellino. Su valor cambiará el curso de la historia. FRANCINE

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