INTO THE FIRE – Suzanne Brockmann
Troubleshooters Series, Book 13
Ballantine Books
ISBN: 978-0-345-50153-0
July 2008
Romantic Suspense

California – Six Months Ago and Present Day

After months of waiting, the Troubleshooters meet SEAL Team Sixteen -- how much more excitement can we stand? Join me in the thrill of their new story that is sure to grab your interest, play with your emotions, and alternately get you mad and cry with our old friends. Come with me into their word of pain, violence, death, and love....

Hannah Whitfield and Vinh Murphy -- Hannah is an ex-cop, retired, disabled, partially deaf, and hiding in her uncle's cabin far off in the California woods. Her best friend since she was a teenager is Vinh Murphy, former Marine and ex-Troubleshooter. Hannah introduced Vinh to her best friend, Angelina, years ago and they married. But during a Troubleshooters action, Angelina was killed, and Vinh has been MIA ever since. Every six months or so he shows up at Hannah's cabin drunk, drugged up on who knows what, stays a few days and then leaves again. This time Hannah catches him trying to break into her uncle's gun cabinet, showing what depths he has dropped to now.

Izzy Zanella and Eden Gillman -- Izzy is a typical Marine, looking to score with whoever is interested, when the most beautiful woman walks into the LadyBug Lounge. When he finds out she is looking for another Marine, Danny Gillman, he is more than willing to help. When Izzy finds out Eden is Danny's seventeen-year-old sister, well, eighteen at midnight that night, Izzy remembers his strict standards, no sex with anyone under twenty...well, nineteen and a half in a pinch. Before finding Eden's brother, Eden spends the night at Izzy's, and he manages to control himself...just. Then Danny comes and returns Eden to Las Vegas and her mother and stepfather.

Tim Ebersole -- Leader of the Freedom Network, a Nazi like group; he was murdered and his body just found. He is believed to have killed Angelina all those years ago, and naturally, Vinh is a suspect in his murder.

Dave, Decker, and Sophia -- These three have been through an experience that has left deep scars on each of them. Can they deal with their hidden fears and start to face the future?

Jimmy Nash and Tess Bailey – Tess and Jimmy were involved with Dave, Decker, and Sophia all those years ago and are engaged and have a deep love for each other. But something is wrong with Jimmy, and no one knows what it is. Can their relationship weather the troubles ahead of them?

The threads of a tapestry are like the different issues dealt with throughout INTO THE FIRE. Vinh is trying to decide whether to hide from the people who would like to ask him about Tim Ebersole's death. Vinh wouldn't mind talking to the FBI, except he has months of his life he cannot remember due to his alcohol and drug haze. Jimmy Nash is up to something, and Tess doesn't know what it is, only that it's tearing them apart. Dave, Decker, and Sophia form a weird sort of trio, and things come to a head when their past lives are laid bare and dissected by a psychiatrist. Can Decker forgive himself for what happened with Sophia, and can Sophia come to terms with her past life and the death of her husband? What will Hannah do about her love for Vinh, forget it, live with it without letting him know, or continue to hide herself away as she's been doing for years? Perhaps the most poignant piece of the quilt -- to mix a metaphor -- is that of Izzy and Eden and what happens when she becomes pregnant. Only Izzy knows HE didn't do it, but can he do what feels right to him? And Eden, at a young age, is hiding lie after lie, and cannot believe in Izzy and why he would want to help her.

If you haven't read Suzanne Brockmann, welcome to her world of strong, alpha men, military assignments gone wrong, and excitement that will make your blood pressure rise and, maybe, cause a twitch here or there. We are treated to her usual high energy, extremely detailed story here, with intertwining plots and characters, and situations that tug at our heartstrings and then make us madder than normal. Told from multiple points of view, the heartbreak of Vinh, the craziness of Izzy, the world that Hannah must now live in; it is as if they are our good friends. The action is fast and furious, the bullets and knives are real, and people in love find out love can't cure all problems. And at the center of INTO THE FIRE is the despair someone feels when a spouse dies, and how long and to what lengths the one left behind will go to escape the pain, and what one must do to heal. Don't try a Suzanne Brockmann book unless you are ready to let these people into your life and hang onto every word from her pen to find out what happens to them.

Almost the entire Troubleshooters group and SEAL Team Sixteen make appearances in INTO THE FIRE. Anyone you knew from previous books in the series is at least mentioned, and of the main characters, Decker, Jimmy Nash, Tess Bailey, Dave Malkoff, and Sophia are prominent. Also introduced is a female psychiatrist, Dr. Heissman, trying to understand and deal with the intense alpha SEALS and Troubleshooters. If you've read previous Suzanne Brockmann's books, you will know and be thrilled when all the old names come back, even Jules Cassidy.

INTO THE FIRE is, as usual, a wonderfully intense look at the SEALS and Troubleshooters. Perhaps more tense and dramatic than Ms. Brockmann's usual stories, there is definitely more sadness, pain, and human drama here. People are wounded, things aren't as they seem, and there are plenty of strings left dangling that will leave us with nightmares until the next book comes and brings some sense to the pain and sadness that infects everyone. Whether you are a devoted reader of Ms. Brockmann or this might be your first foray into her writing, don't miss INTO THE FIRE. Not that I expect any devotee to miss this book, but new readers can enjoy the story immensely; of course reading a couple of the previous stories would be better, but be warned! Troubleshooters are terribly addictive, and there is no known rehab program that works!

Carolyn Crisher