Another Troubleshooters book...I'm missing a few in between on my reading list.
Anyway: After hopping into a loveless, knocked-up-my-brief-girlfriend marriage, Sam Starrett is looking for his ex Mary Lou to finalize the divorce papers after he hasn't heard from her in three weeks. When he gets to the house, he finds a three-weeks-old dead body, and no baby daughter. Holy shit. He eventually finds out that his sister-in-law was the body on the floor, but where's Mary Lou, and why did she disappear? (Why appears to have been covered in the preceding book, but I certainly got what had happened and why.) Mary Lou has cleverly hidden herself by working as an au pair, supervising a rich teenage girl named Whitney and her daughter, and she hopes that people follow her false trail.
(And might I just say that I loved the character reveals in this book? Whitney is to some degree a rich snot, but she shows some real character and heart, especially in one particular action in the book. Plus, she's good with guns. Yeah!)
Sam's missing ex-wife and how she might have had something to do with a terrorist event in the previous book backs up badly on Tom Paoletti, who gets his ass arrested (and presumably he'll be losing his job ASAP one way or another) in this one, forcing his reluctant-to-marry girlfriend Kelly to finally bite that particular bullet. Finding out what happened to Mary Lou is imperative for more than just Sam.
Sam's memorable one-night-stand Alyssa is called in to help him on this, and they continue to squabble and get closer. We also find out about Sam's childhood, where the nicknames came from, and why he hates his given name. We meet Noah, who he befriended in middle school, and find out how he was pretty well adopted by the Gaines family. (And might I just say, the story behind this made me KVELL, folks. So. Awesomely. Sweet.) It's all adorable. I don't know how I feel about having WWII in EVERY FREAKING STORY THE AUTHOR DOES (or so it seems), but I was pretty fond of Walt and Dot's tale. I just wish Dot had had more of a voice in it, but I guess it's really a boy's story here.
Mixed in with all of this are Max, Alyssa's current boss, who kind of has a thing for her but won't get involved due to their work situation, and Gina, the girl Max can't get over even though he thinks them dating would be bad. Sure, meeting when you're negotiator and hostage isn't the best "meet cute" ever, but Gina is STILL determined to get her man, regardless of how much Max is freaked by the circumstances.
This is one tempestuous mix of awesome. Five stars.
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