Run For Your Life By Judith Lucci in Love Under Fire Box Set!

“Hey, John,” Secret Service Agent Rob Henry said softly as he peered at his monitor. “I’ve got some turbulence over on the southern end of the estate, looks like it’s near the riverbed. Can you come over here and check the topo map with me?” 

Special-Agent-in-Charge, SAC John Cole, a distinguished man with silver hair in his early fifties, moved quickly from his desk to Rob’s and looked at the map on Rob’s monitor. “Yeah, I see it. It looks weird. Could it be a vibration?” 

Rob tugged at his ear, a sure sign he was in heavy thought.” It could be, but I’ve never seen vibration appear like that on the monitor. The pattern seems, well, inconclusive.” He reached for his coffee.  

John shrugged his shoulders. “It’s been quiet around here for months and we both know there’s chatter about a planned attack on the Congressman’s estate.” He paused and gazed at the map on the monitor. “Blow it up. Put the image up on the wall.” 

Rob flipped a switch on his main console and immediately a topo map of Wyndley Farm illuminated the entire wall of the Secret Service compound located on Congressman Adam Patrick Lee’s rural Virginia estate. Both men, retired military Special Forces and seasoned Secret Service agents, studied the image on the wall.  

John Cole scanned the image carefully. He’d been head of the Secret Service detail at Wyndley Farm for several years, ever since Congress had appropriated funds to safeguard the nation’s greatest statesman who’d become synonymous with American’s fight against radical Islam. Prior to his assignment at Wyndley, SAC Cole had guarded the President, whoever that was at the time, for fifteen years. He’d personally overseen the Presidential security team. Many of the changes in security at the White House, especially since 9/11, had been planned and executed under his direction. If there was ever a warrior who knew security and security breaches, it was John Cole.  

But, in its own way, Wyndley Farm was more difficult to protect than the White House. He had a tough assignment. The estate was open and wooded and there were multiple ingress and egress sites where a single terrorist or an entire group of hostiles could slip in and out without detection. And, Congressman Adam Patrick Lee had some enemies. Adam Patrick Lee, better known as “the people’s politician,” was a son of Virginia. He was a descendant of the famous Lee family that included Light Horse Harry Lee and General Robert E. Lee who headed the Army of the South against Northern aggression during the Civil War. His estate in Northwestern Hanover County was over twelve hundred acres situated on the North Anna River. 

Wyndley Farm was located less than an hour from Richmond and two hours from Washington, DC. The Secret Service monitored a state of the art perimeter security system with internal and external video and audio surveillance. The residence had electronic keypad locks, sensors, and infrared technology. The interior of the house had a safe room. A six-foot hurricane fence topped with razor wire surrounded the property. The fence also had motion and vibration sensors.  Nevertheless, the vast estate was difficult to protect. The estate included hundreds of acres of forest, several residences, a horse-breeding facility, and multiple barns and outbuildings. Wyndley was a famous horse-breeding farm and multiple customers visited each day. Security was tight, but even in the best of worlds, John Cole knew the farm could easily come under attack. 

Tension was high in Secret Service headquarters. Several attacks on the farm had occurred in recent years, but had been diffused due to a lot of luck and the swift, expert action of the Secret Service. Just a few winters ago, the Secret Service had lost one of their very own. Seth Farmer had been killed by a terrorist seeking revenge against Adam Patrick Lee for an off-the-cuff comment he’d made to a reporter in New Orleans after the terrorist attack.

~~~

Run for Your Life

By Judith Lucci

I would image in getting a boxed set put together, it's a lot of work. Run for Your Life is an excellent book but it is not a medical thriller, and  Alexandra Destephano is not a character in the book, so followers of that series should be aware that this is, more, a political thriller that is well worth a recommendation in that genre...

I was reminded of John McCain who had a stellar reputation as I read about Congressman Adam Patrick Lee, who had been serving America well, in fighting  against fanatic Islam.  He also had a large estate that was the home of his family...  It also was a horse breeding farm with hundreds of acres. The Secret Service had been assigned to guard Wyndley Farm, since there had been a number of attempts by terrorists to seek revenge...or a trophy by their fellow countrymen...

The latter was what drove Syrian extremist Salmud Hafiz-- he wanted to garner praise and more importance and his drive allowed him to consider any type of action to do so, including murder. The author's decision to include American-born terrorists as characters, in my opinion, added a significant dimension to the story as it brings home exactly whether a religious conversion of these American's has actually occurred, or whether they were merely disgruntled and chose to make a break, thinking they would have a better life... Billy Jack Walters quickly realized his mistake...Hafiz was ordering them while he sat and watched and was expecting the digging under ground that Bill and his friend were doing, to go faster... When Billy complained and left, Hafiz made his first mistake by following him and leaving him in a provocative manner for officials to find... his head in a public restroom--dead!

The murder added to the fact that Secret Service equipment had already picked up vibration that had put them on higher alert... quickly changed what was happening to prepare... 

The personal element of the characters was key to the  quality of the book. Family and close friends were in danger and one of those was a newly adopted baby who was brought back to America after a battle...Now revenge was to be had and the baby was in danger plus those that had been in that combat were targeted for death. The storyline is complex, with edge-of-the seat tension as readers watch to know that, once again, good wins out over evil...

There was some concern that I had that the security team was too loose in the followup, implying they were not efficient, in order to provide a more dramatic tale. That is, I felt that the security agents were not given their due so that the main characters became the heroes. This was opinion based upon early detecting of vibration, without adequate followup... This led to a bit of credibility for me about the overall storyline. Nevertheless, the concept was consistent, well drawn out, and the final method for attack, as brought in by the author, made sense, was well written and provided a climatic ending that was quite satisfactory... Do check it out!


GABixlerReviews

Dr. Judith Lucci is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Amazon best-selling author. She's won awards for the Alexandra Destephano Medical Thriller and the Michaela McPherson "Two Sleuth's and a Dog" Crime fiction series. In 2017, Viral Intent (Book 3) Alexandra Destephano Series) was awarded a Gold Medal by Readers' Favorites for 'Best Political Thriller' as was her crime thriller 'The Case of Dr. Dude (Michaela McPherson #1) for a Gold Medal for 'Best Amateur Sleuth for 2017. She has contributed to four anthologies and collections and is the creator of Author 911: The Authors Guide to Writing and Medical Information. She is a registered nurse and college professor and holds graduate degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Virginia. Judith always like to connect with her readers and is available at judithlucciwrites@gmail.com