Dead Right [Mass Market Paperback]

STORY BRIEF:
Dante works for the CIA. Cat has worked for different European and US intelligence agencies. Dante and Cat worked on a job together. He fell in love with her. He now believes she double crossed him resulting in the death of his team and his imprisonment and torture in a Thailand jail. Dante eventually escapes. He is now searching the globe for Cat, wanting revenge.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
Wow. Good. Exciting. Edge of your seat suspense. Spies, imprisonment, torture, escape. I didn't want to stop reading it. Excellent and interesting characters. Well done plot and events. I might have preferred a little more of the development of the relationship between Cat and Dante, but it was ok for a suspense book. The couple had already been together before the story starts. The story is about what happens during their separation and wondering if they will ever be together again. The bad guy is monstrous. I want to thank the author for putting in the happy ending epilogue. It tied things up beautifully. Some authors don't do that. I wanted it, and it was well done. There were some unanswered questions at the end, which I expect may continue as a sequel. I was ok with those questions being unanswered.

Initially, I was hesitant about all the jumping around in the book. The chapters go back and forth and out of order, among periods of 3 years ago, 2 years ago, 1 year ago, 4 months ago, and the present. Normally, I do not like this style of writing, but it was ok. It worked well for this story. The author finished most scenes logically before moving to another time and place, which I liked. Only once, page 225, did the author leave me with a cliffhanger I did not like. Someone is on the run and the scene stops before the end of the chase which picks back up again on page 233.

CAUTION SPOILERS:
I would have liked answers to some of the following questions. Details about how and why Dante was captured. What exactly was being done to him in jail? Why did the bad guy send Dante to a prison in Thailand instead of keeping him nearby so the bad guy could observe and/or do the torture himself? When Dante escaped, the guards should have found him immediately because he was tagged. Then, I didn't understand why he was sent to a different jail. The bad guy must have allowed Dante to be rescued, I assume so he could follow Dante. But Dante was going to die if not rescued, so I wasn't sure if the bad guy wanted Dante dead or rescued? Why was the Thailand jail razed later? Dante was given drugs that caused psychic abilities. The psychic talent story started but didn't continue. The psychic abilities were not used or explained. Even though I have these questions, I still enjoyed the book.

DATA:
Story length: 344 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 6. Total number of sex scene pages: 9. Setting: present day Thailand, Florida, Caribbean, Mexico and South America. Copyright: 2009. Genre: suspense with romance.

OTHER BOOKS:
For a list of my reviews of other Cate Noble books, see my 2 ½ star review of "Deadly Seduction" posted 2-9-10.

Plot Summary: A fast-paced CIA romantic suspense, where the characters travel all over the world, and much of the story is told via flashbacks. It reads like a movie script that we've all seen clones of on the big screen. We meet our hero Dante during his 18-month imprisonment in a Thailand crud hole (James Bond déjà vu here). He believes his former spy-lover sold him out, and revenge is the only thing keeping him alive. Unbeknownst to Dante, Catalina is innocent, she's on the run, and she has a son.

I'm not sure if this is Noble's first big novel, but if it is, I applaud it as a very credible, professional, and polished effort. There are a couple of reasons why I think this is good, but not great, or excellent. First, there weren't any big twists or surprises, and I kept hoping Noble would jerk me in an unexpected direction. I want to be completely blindsided when reading a suspense, like being T-boned by a Mack truck in an intersection. POW!

The main characters, Dante and Catalina, were nicely developed, but they didn't get to spend enough time together, either in or out of bed. I wanted to see heat waves roll off this couple like sun-scorched blacktop, but aside from a few tantalizing moments, I was largely disappointed. If we could ratchet up the intensity in Dante by several more clicks we'd have a seriously potent hero.

Final note -- I love the cover art on this book. It's simple and sexy.

I'm picky about what I read--we all are. I tend to lean towards the CIA/spy thriller variety of romantic suspense, rather than FBI/serial killer, and since the former is hard to come by, I bought Cate Noble's debut on the blurb alone.

And I wasn't disappointed.

Needless to say, this isn't your typical romantic suspense. The book relies heavily on flashbacks to unfold the story, and the main protagonist, Dante Johnson, spends a good chunk of the book being tortured, recovering from the torture, and trying to get his life back together after being rescued from Southeast Asia. In fact, the heroine of the piece, Cat, doesn't show up until halfway through the book. But don't let that scare you because "Dead Right" is a page-turner.

In this book the stakes are high, the danger is real and the events are so eerily similar to what information we do get in the news, the narrative could have bounded right from today's headlines--and all without getting political, or the choosing of political ideology over another (which is to Noble credit). Even though most of the book is spent with Cat on the run, and Dante trying to find her, I found the romantic relationship very satisfying. If I could compare this book with another author's works, I would say "Dead Right" is what some of Ken Follett's earlier thriller titles would be if Follett were a romance writer.

During the process of unwinding the plot threads of the story, Noble also introduces a couple of very intriguing characters who, by the end of the book, I wanted to know much, much more about. And judging by the rather open-ended manner in which Noble ended the book (don't worry, Dante and Cat get their HEA), she is just as intrigued by them as well. If you're looking for an atypical romantic suspense, or perhaps want a larger dash of romance with your spy thrillers, "Dead Right" is just about perfect. I can't wait for the next book.