Hot Pursuit by Suzanne Brockmann

Hot Pursuit (2009) (Headline)
Suzanne Brockmann
Grade: B
Genre: adventure / romantic suspense
Sex scenes: mild
Source: library 
Troubleshooters: (1) The Unsung Hero, (2) The Defiant Hero, (3) Over the Edge, (4) Out of Control, (5) Into the Night, (6) Gone Too Far .... (15) Hot Pursuit

What promised to be a small, easy job teaching New York’s new Assemblywoman Maria Bonavita some personal safety tips and installing security systems into her office and apartment, was blown out of the window when body parts started turning up. Good job Alyssa Locke and her husband, Sam Starrett of Troubleshooters Inc are on the job – oh, and their 10-month-old baby, Ashton, too.

Suddenly Maria’s office is SEAL-central as Izzy Zanella, Dan Gillman, Jay Lopez and Tony Vlachic join the mix to protect Maria and her Chief of Staff, Jenn. When FBI agent Jules Cassidy turns up with his husband Robin Chadwick in tow, it’s a full house. Assigned to protect Jenn, Dan is intent on using his time out of a warzone on getting to know Jenn very well – not to mention that the time spent in her miniscule apartment means time spent out of the company of Izzy Zanella – the fellow SEAL who slept with and then married his younger sister. As if Dan and Izzy hadn’t been like oil and water already. But what starts out as a two-week fling rapidly turns out to be a whole lot more than either Jenn or Dan were expecting.

Meanwhile, the killer always seems to be five steps ahead. The office is on full lockdown as Alyssa, Sam and Jules investigate what they initially think is an inside prank, only for it to turn out to be even worse than their wildest dreams. As they begin to unravel the clues and step deeper into the mystery it becomes clear that Maria isn’t the target after all … but Alyssa …

This is an example where I sat and read the book, cover to cover, in one sitting. In this case, it was almost five hundred pages over the course of about four-and-a-half hours, taking me to the early hour of 3:30am. Boy was I regretting the lack of sleep the next day, but it’s another great book in the Troubleshooters series.

I must admit that now that Sam and Alyssa, my favourite couple of the Troubleshooters series, are together (since book 6, Gone Too Far), my hype has died down considerably. It was previously all about their animosity-yet-smoking-attraction and while they’re the cutest couple and adorable parents of baby Ashton, some of my fun has naturally been diminished. Also, while I only picked up Hot Pursuit because that was what was on the library shelf, if it hadn’t been a book about Alyssa and Sam, I most likely wouldn’t have made the jump from book six to book fifteen – my head is now royally messed up about the status of all the characters and I cannot wait until I can find copies of all the books that I’ve yet to read.

That said, I love love love books where we revisit characters once they have already had their happy ever after. Alyssa and Sam in particular, were always characterised by their hostility towards one another, and this shift in the way they treat each other is one of the starkest – and best – that I’ve come across. Alyssa and Sam are a natural team and fit together like two pieces of a puzzle – how they didn’t see this and wasted years of their life hung up on one another made for great reading, but some rather stupid mistakes on their part!

Another great addition to the Troubleshooters series. It was well worth waiting six books for Sam and Alyssa to get together, and I am very happy that Suzanne Brockmann responded to the fan reaction and decided to write another book about Sam and Alyssa. Do make sure you read at least some of the books inbetween Gone Too Far and Hot Pursuit, though! It’ll give you a much clearer picture of the events inbetween and hopefully you won’t be as muddle-headed as I’ve become!

Image courtesy of Book Depository