Armenia and Present Day Columbia, Missouri

She's in a cave, and she's the last one alive, but for how long? Until her captors get tired of torturing her? Until she has no bones left unbroken? It hurts to breath; it hurts to move. She doesn't know if death should be feared or welcomed. The one named Boris enters with orders to kill her, but at the last possible moment, Boris is killed by the terrorist who had stood by and watched her beatings. Inexplicably, he carries her out of the cave as gently as possible, but Lana passes out.

Eighteen months later, Lana Hancock is back from the dead and home in Columbia, miraculously able to walk and function normally, except, perhaps, to sleep. Her nights are tormented by dreams that re-enact those three terrible days of captivity. Lana has established a foundation called First Light to give children a safe and fun place to be. She and her assistant are busily preparing for a fundraiser, when, out of the blue, the man who rescued her shows up claiming to have orders to protect her. Lana doesn't believe she's in danger -- if the terrorists knew the hood over her head had a slit in it that she could see out of, she'd be dead already. She never told anyone, even the good guys, that she had seen several faces. To let that be known, it would put her, her whole family, and anyone else she cares about in danger.

It almost killed Delta Force member Caleb Stone to watch the innocents in that cave be beaten and killed. He was undercover with the group know as the Swarm, and to give himself away would mean they wouldn't learn which school the Swarm planned to blow up. It was a trade-off of a handful of adults against any number of children. But he was glad he could save Lana Hancock. Caleb stayed holding her hand in the hospital -- willing her to live -- until it looked as though she would come through. Now he deeply regrets his orders to intrude upon her life again. How she must detest him.

NO CONTROL is a chilling thriller that features an arch villain and a stunning villainess. It's also a powerful vehicle for two extraordinary protagonists. As a member of the Army's Delta Force, Caleb Stone can be as hard as his name when necessary, yet tender and concerned as a human being. Lana Hancock goes through the fires of hell and comes out tempered into steel, at least on the outside. Underneath, she remains a generous, caring individual who needs to make her life mean something. She has more than a touch of survivor's guilt to contend with, but her goodness is innate. Caleb is also plagued by feelings of guilt; in spite of reassurances to the contrary, he's sure there must have been some way he could have helped Lana and the others without failing his mission.

Suspense is high in NO CONTROL as Lana is graphically shown that she is, indeed, in danger, and perhaps all those she cares about. But equally riveting is the relationship between her and Caleb. Caleb's feelings for Lana are more than guilt; they're a mix of admiration for her strength and sexual attraction, the latter a source of more guilt. How can he want her so badly when what he did was so unforgivable? Lana, on the other hand, unaccountably finds his presence comforting, something she fights against as a weakness.

I regret to have missed Ms. Butcher's debut novel, NO REGRETS, but am grateful for NO CONTROL. She knows how to tell a story and how to get her readers involved with her characters. On her website, www.shannonkbutcher.com, she claims not to be a born writer, that she learned to write after her marriage to Sci-Fi author Jim Butcher. If so, she learned well. I highly recommend NO CONTROL for its deep characterization and exciting, conflict-laden plot. And unforgettable hero and heroine.

Jane Bowers