No Safe Place by JoAnn Ross

     This is the first time I have written about JoAnn Ross but it is certainly not the first time I have read her.  Whenever you want a high-octane romance, you can count on Joann Ross.  Her stories are fast-paced, the settings are well chosen, and the plots are well constructed.
     No Safe Place is set in New Orleans a year after Katrina.  The city, as we all know, still had many devastated neighborhoods and the police force was still riddled with corruption.  Kate Delaney, a Chicago homicide detective, walks into this nightmare of lies and secrets looking to find who killed her sister.  Kate is appalled at the disinterest of the New Orleans force in finding her sister's killer.  She knows she must find someone to help her who knows the city and its players.
     Nick Broussard returned to his hometown of New Orleans after spending 15 years as a SEAL doing special ops.  He signed on with NOPD but managed to get himself thrown off the force for taking payouts after only six months.  That's okay because Nick has a plan to find out what really happened to his estranged father, also a cop of long standing with the NOPD.  Now a private investigator, Nick knows the minute he sees Kate standing on the dock where he keeps his boat that she is going to be nothing but trouble.
     As Kate and Nick begin to peel away the layers of secrets surrounding both deaths, the dark side of New Orleans becomes more and more apparent.  Friends are not who they seem and enemies are hard to determine.  Many are willing to kill rather than have their secrets uncovered.
     JoAnn Ross has written a great story but she has also laid bare some of New Orleans' worst secrets.  Her careful research into New Orleans post Katrina shows us a city that still has a long way to go on its road to recovery.  Unfortunately, the stories about corruption in New Orleans were, and still are, true.

Other books by JoAnn Ross that I have read and can recommend.

The Homecoming (c2010)
Breakpoint (c2009)
Shattered   (c2009)
Crossfire  (2008)
Freefall (2008)
No Safe Place (2007)
Blaze  (2005)
Out of the Storm (Stewart Sisters Trilogy)  (c2004)
Out of the Blue (Stewart Sisters Trilogy)  (c2004)
Out of the Mist (Stewart Sisters Trilogy)  (c2003)
Magnolia Moon (Callahan Brothers Trilogy)  (c2003)
River Road (Callahan Brothers Trilogy)  (c2002)
Blue Bayou (Callahan Brothers Trilogy)  (c2002)
Far Harbor (Coldwater Cove #2)  (c2000)
Homeplace  (Coldwater Cove #1)  (c1999)

The Search by Nora Roberts

     There is a reason why Nora Roberts has 400 million copies of her 190 novels in print and that reason is simple - they are good!  No, not simple in plot or characterization, but simply good to read.  I suppose I have read at least a dozen of her books and I still always pick up the newest one when it comes out.  I also go back to her when I can't find a new author that grabs me.
     The Search (July, 2010) is every bit as compelling as the first Nora Roberts' book I read.  The Search is the story of Fiona Bristow and Simon Doyle.  At first glance they have nothing in common and certainly do not attract each other.  Simon is an artist in wood and Fiona trains dogs and heads a search and rescue team.  Simon's mother has sent him a puppy and Simon is at his wit's end about what to do with the "house-eating" maniac he has named Jaws.  He brings Jaws to Fiona to train but Fiona doesn't just train dogs, she also trains the owner, and, as anyone who has owned a dog knows, that is really what dog training is all about.  Simon relents and agrees to come with Jaws.
     There is more to Fiona than first meets the eye.  She was to be the 13th victim in a serial killer's string of victims.  She escaped and helped put the killer in jail but not before he killed her policeman fiance.  Now someone is copying the jailed killer's operation and Fiona again finds she is on the list of victims.  As Simon gets closer to Fiona, he promises her she will not be caught again and Simon never says anything he doesn't mean.
     One of the great things about reading is how much you can learn when the author has really done the research.  The Search is a great story on its own, but the information about dog training and search and rescue dogs is also worth the read.  Simon didn't know anything about training or S&R until he met Fiona and, since that was her life, he learns about it right along with the reader.  Simon is an artist with wood and as Fiona draws closer to him, she begins to learn about his world.  This information is important and relevant but it isn't presented as "lessons."  It is written into the book as part of the story, helping to advance the characters and the plot. 
     Read The Search on any level that fits you.  Just be sure to read it!

Just the ones I've read by Nora Roberts

The Search (c7/2010)
Black Hills (c5/2010)
Tribute     (c2008)
Angels Fall (c2007)
Blue Smoke (c2005)
Northern Lights (c2005)
Birthright (c2004)
The Villa (2002)
Carolina Moon (c2001)
River's End (c2000)
Homeport  (c1999)
Sanctuary  (c1998)

Silent Enemy by Lois Richer

     Silent Enemy is book number two in the Finders, Inc series by Lois Richer.  It is, I think, the first book I have read by this author.  Although this is a series book, I had no trouble picking up on the characters and the action.  I enjoyed it enough that I want to read the other books in the series.
     When I looked up Lois Richer, I discovered that all of her books are published by Harlequin in the Love Inspired series.  I'm glad I found that after I read Silent Enemy.  Sometimes I find the Love Inspired books rather sappy and insipid, but Silent Enemy can stand with the best romance thrillers.  The fact that Daniel McCullough, the hero, has a firm faith in God adds to the book and certainly defines who Daniel is.
     Samantha Henderson works for Daniel at Finders, Inc.  Finders is a security service that finds expensive articles that have been lost or stolen.  Daniel has just turned down Sam's promotion because he thinks she isn't ready for the next level of responsibility.  Sam has trouble trusting anyone so she isn't a very good team played. 
     Daniel sends her to Lima, Peru to recover an Incan statue that went missing in route to the museum that purchased it.  Once in Peru, Sam thinks she is following the statue only to end up in the Amazon jungle.  A priest helps her and Sam discovers some gold coins while she is in the mission compound.  Since her cell phone works only sporadically, Daniel thinks she has once again decided to be an independent operator and he goes after her.  They end up together on a cruise where the statue is supposed to be auctioned off but the bodies keep turning up and none of the clues seem to go together.  In addition to the lost statue and the gold coins, there is also a drug cartel and 5K in missing cocaine.  All of this could get cumbersome, but Richer fits  it together in a plausible story that moves smoothly.
     I really liked this book.  It centered around the usual two people who you know are going to end up together but it kept moving and the plot was just different enough so that I didn't think I was rereading three other books.  Daniel and Sam play off of each other and Richer made you really care about them. 
     Silent Enemy is well worth the reading time!

Finders, Inc.

Identity: Undercover  (2006)
Silent Enemy  (c2007)
Secrets of the Rose  (c2007)

Two Mysteries Revolving Around Sewing Circles

     You don't have to sew to enjoy these two light mysteries.  The sewing circles in both of these books simply give the author a chance to introduce characters and move the plot forward. 
     The sewing circle in The Lover's Knot is in Archer's Rest, New York which is about an hours train ride from New York City.  Nell Fitzgerald has retreated to Archer's Rest to recover from a broken engagement. The engagement had progressed far enough that the invitations were waiting to be addressed, Nell had already given up her apartment in New York, and her grandmother's quilting circle had finished and sent The Lover's Knot quilt when Ryan showed up and announced he wasn't ready to be married.  Nell's grandmother lives in Archer's Rest so Nell goes there for a weekend of chocolate and sympathy. 
     While in Archer's Rest, she meets the town's handyman who is young, handsome and devious.  Nell's grandmother, Eleanor, hires him to remodel the quilt shop which Eleanor owns.  An accident in the shop sends Eleanor to the hospital with a broken leg and Nell decides to stay in Archer's Rest to help her grandmother.  When the handyman ends up dead in the quilt shop, everyone in the sewing circle becomes a suspect including Nell. 
     The fact that the Archer's Rest chief of police is handsome and single definitely adds to the mix.
     The other sewing circle is far from the one in New York, both geographically and socially.  The sewing circle in Sew Deadly is in Sweet Briar, South Carolina.  Sweet Briar is a little town where everyone who lives there was born there and newcomers are not welcome.  Tori Sinclair, from Chicago, enters this closed society to become the town's librarian.  Not only is Tori not from Sweet Briar, she is from the North, uses a nickname, and finds that the former librarian was fired not retired. 
     Tori manages to become friends with the owner of the local antique store who invites her to come to the Sweet Briar Ladies Society Sewing Circle.  Tori is slowly beginning to learn the rules of the South only to have the town sweetheart show up dead at the back door of the library.  The local police investigator is sure that Tori has killed the girl in a love triangle.  Since the investigator doesn't seem to be looking at anybody else as the murderer, Tori sets out to solve the crime herself.  The sewing circle provides both suspects and clues as it meets weekly to discuss the unsettling events taking place in Sweet Briar.
     Both of these mysteries are light and fun reading.  The members of each circle are clearly drawn and diverse enough to provide the reader with plenty of ideas for motive and suspects.  You'll spend a pleasant evening with Nell and Tori even if you can't thread a needle.

Southern Sewing Circle Series

Sew Deadly
Death Threads
Pinned for Murder

A Someday Quilts Mystery Series

The Lover's Knot
A Drunkard's Path
The Double Cross

Ice by Linda Howard

     I truly don't know which Linda Howard book was the first one I read.  Even looking back over her lengthy list, I can't pinpoint it.  I do know that whenever I see a new title from her, I rush to pick it up and I don't put it down till the story ends.  And this was equally true with Ice.
     This book deals with just two kinds of ice - the one that falls from the sky and the one that is cooked up in illegal, unmarked labs all over our country.
     Lolly has been targeted by a couple of meth addicts simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  They spot her and follow her to her family's isolated house in the wooded mountains of Maine. Lolly has come to prepare the house for sale since her parents now live in Florida and she has moved to Portland. 
     Gabriel McQueen has come home to visit his seven year-old son and see his parents.  His dad is the sheriff and considers it his job to keep everyone safe even if it means sending Gabriel up the mountain in the teeth of an ice storm to check on a distant neighbor with whom there has been almost no contact for ten years.
     Gabriel is not excited to see Lolly again as they were not exactly friends in high school and Lolly was always considered stuck-up and stand-offish.  However, Gabriel is not about to tell his father "No," so he takes off, thinking it will be only a few hours until he is back.  Once he realizes that Lolly has been taken captive, all his combat training kicks in and the battle is on. 
     Between falling Ice, falling temperatures, falling trees, and falling in love, Gabriel and Lolly have plenty to keep them occupied to say nothing of outwitting a couple of meth addicts. 
     This one will keep you reading to the very end.
     Here are some other books by Linda Howard that I really liked.

Now You See Her (c1998)
Dying to Please (c2002)
Cry No More (c2003)
To Die For (2004)
Drop Dead Gorgeous (c2006)
Up Close and Dangerous (c2007)
Death Angel (c2008)
Burn  (c2009)