Monday, March 3, 2014

Spending A Little Weekend Time With Favorite Author Iris Johansen!

Atlanta Airport
Dead.
Eve was dead.
The words kept drumming in Catherine Ling's mind as she walked up the gateway to the terminal. No matter how many times she told herself it was true, she still couldn't believe it. Not Eve Duncan. Not her friend, the woman who had helped to save her son.
"Agent Ling?" A sandy-haired young man was running after Catherine as she headed for baggage. "I'm Brad Linden." He showed her his CIA credentials. "Agent Venable sent me to pick you up and take you to the memorial service."
"Then go get your car while I pick up my bag." Catherine Ling didn't stop as she strode ahead of him. "And why the hell didn't Venable come and get me himself? I heed to have a few choice words with him." 
He's at the service. It's going on right now. He didn't want to show disrespect. I'm afraid you're a little late."
"Because no one told me that Eve--" She broke off. He was gazing at her warily, and she knew she must be radiating all the ferocity and sadness she was feeling. There was no use ripping at Venable's errand boy because Venable had left her in ignorance of Eve's death or the search when she was kidnapped several days ago. He would only try to make excuses for the inexcusable. Yes, she had been undercover in the jungles of Colombia, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't have somehow extricated herself and come home to help find Eve. Venable should have gotten word to her. Ne, she'd had to find out in Miami when she'd retrieved her own computer and been hit in the gut with the news story in USA Today. "Just have that car out front and get me to that memorial service ASAP Linden."
...The actual story of Eve's kidnapping and murder was fairly cut-and-dried...Since the details were sparse, they had concentrated on Eve Duncan herself. Her background, her accomplishments, quotes from famous law-enforcement officials who had used her services. All were very worth reading, Catherine thought bitterly. It wasn't often that the media got a chance to spotlight a genuinely good person...
~~~


Silencing Eve
By Iris Johansen

When you pick up a recent book in a long-running series like "An Eve Duncan Novel", it's almost like coming home for a holiday. You know all the main characters and even some of the occasional--those who have met Eve and/or have received her help in some way, just don't forget... I have other Johansen books on my "favorite authors" TBR stack, but I had just picked this one up. Silencing Eve is the closing book of a trilogy and if you can't read them all, this book should be a must-read for her fans! OMG! I don't know how she does it, but these novels seem to get better and better! How is that possible?!!!


"He was the father of Kevin Relling, who was
assassinated five years ago. His son was in Special
Forces in the Army and turned very dirty. He was
working with al-Qaeda in Pakistan and blocking
the hunt for Bin Laden. He also indulged his pen-
chant for raping and killing little girls in whatever
city he found himself. He killed the five-year-old
daughter of General Tarther in Marseilles because
the general was trying to zero in on the al-Qaeda
group...
"The general went crazy and eventually hired a
hit man, Lee Zander, to find and go after Doane's
son. Zander killed him and hired a funeral director
to cremate the remains. Doane arrived too late
to grab anything but his son's skull from the
furnace...
~~~
"Okay, then that would be a reason for his
 kidnapping Eve. Doane wanted Eve to do a
recon
struction on the son's skull. Right?"
"I understand that she was doing just that
while she was his captive."
"Then why would the crazy bastard
kill her? She was smart.
If that job was the ransom he
wanted, she wouldn't risk her life by
refusing to do a reconstruction."
...We traced him to an abandoned
saloon there. When our units, Quinn
and Jane MacGuire were closing in on
him, he set off a charge that blew up
the saloon and half the town..."
~~~
Eve had been kidnapped and was still in the hands of the psychopath.  They had seen Doane take Eve into a Ghostown saloon in Rio Grande, Colorado and had not come out. James Doane had been in a safe house in Colorado but had escaped. Doane was the father of Kevin Relling who had been assassinated. 

Later they discovered that the bodies in the explosion were probably  not Doane and Eve. But they kept that secret and announced her death. It was during the memorial for Eve that Catherine Ling made it to town, on the warpath for Agent Venable.

In fact, everybody was angry with Venable. They were sure he had acted without regard to saving Eve! Actually by that time, they knew a lot more about Kevin. They had learned that he and other al-Qaeda had more than likely planted bombs in two different locations somewhere in the U.S.!

Even though Eve's death was a hoax, hundreds of people showed up for her memorial and spoke for her. Of course, Quinn and their adopted daughter, Jane was there. And Jane had an interesting friend I had not met there as well...A young lady who could speak with animals... The man who had killed Doane's son was also there. There was considerable discussion about Lee Zander's possible connection to Eve; i.e., he could be her father. Both of Kevin's parents believed that and one of their plans was to kill Eve while Zander watched!

And, of course, Bonnie was there! For those who don't know, Bonnie is Eve's daughter who was killed many years ago. An interesting event occurred between Bonnie and Eve because of the action of Doane that I thought was a unique touch of this paranormal connection. 

Talking of paranormal--just think about how the three pictures below have been connected for this story! Whew! Guess who saved the day?!



Okay, the rats.
And she didn't have much time. She'd have to open her mind and do a general
scan. Not pleasant. With rats, it was like
having your brain devoured.
She drew a deep breath and tried to armor herself. Then she opened her mind. And was swept away by impressions. Darkness. Hunger. Yellow teeth gnawing, Biting. Some short, some long. Try to isolate the rats with the long teeth. They would be the oldest. Rat's teeth continued to grow
until the day they died.
Savage, hunting, scavenging.
Where? Dark hallways, a hole near the scoreboard. Across the field and behind the kitchens of the refreshment stands...
Running. Clock. Wires. Eat the wires.
Run. Eat. Eat...
~~~
Lots of action, suspense, and surprises...a perfect break for the weekend or any time! Enjoy this one!


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