Fatal Error [Mass Market Paperback]

Susan Maddox is madder than hell. A normal reaction considering her husband of six years, Brian, has run off with the local banker's wife, a fortune in false loans, and stolen enough from the family business to ruin it. On top of that, the gossip surrounding the sordid mess in her small West Texas hometown has her high school teaching job on the line. Eight months after her soon-to-be ex's betrayal, the job's the only thing keeping her and her ailing mother from destitution. The career loss would also mean the end of the ecology club she's organized, her pet project, which has proved to make a difference in the lives of several hard line kids. The mortgage on her home is already being called. How much more does she have to lose?

Even knowing it's foolish, the only person she can look to for help is her brother-in-law, Luke Maddox.

Luke is madder than hell, too. He's lived in the shadow of his football hero brother for a lifetime, never quite measuring up in his socially prideful mother's eyes. After years of playing second fiddle in the family, while his brother side-stepped responsibility for his actions with good `ole boy charm, Luke has to come home to clean up Brian's biggest mess. Even now, with the avalanche of proof, his mother will not accept that Brian has screwed up big time.

Neither Luke nor Susan will admit to the feelings each has buried from that one fateful night, back in high school, when passion reigned and a bond was forged that connects them as much more than in-laws.

Although Luke thinks Susan's been put in an unfair situation, he's got his hands full closing down the family car dealership his deceased father worked all his life to build. But when danger threatens, Luke can't let Susan face it alone.

While the Texas desert, hot and barren as hell by day and colder than sin at night, teems with hidden life, it, too, can bury a multitude of secrets. Can Susan and Luke find the answers they need to solve the mystery surrounding Brian's disappearance and free their frozen hearts?

With plot twists aplenty, FATAL ERROR is an unrivaled whodunit. And the greatest threat to our heroine? You'll need to read the book to figure it out. An interesting little plot twist keeps the reader turning pages until the satisfying end of this novel.

Choose your villain and hang on for the ride. It's a great one.

Fatal error has it all, and then some!

Susan Maddox's husband has disappeared with another woman and a whole lot of money. She's losing her house, about to lose her job...but she'd have sworn she wasn't losing her mind until she found herself taking up with her husband's brother, Luke Maddox. Once upon a time, she and Luke had been a thing, but that was long ago. Now, she only wanted his computer expertise...at least that's what she tells herself. Unfortunately, her heart's not listening.

Colleen Thompson's Fatal Error is a page-turning story full of twists and turns...and a whole lot of love.

Though her husband Brian ran off with the banker's wife Jessica Beecher, everyone in the small southwest Texas community blames schoolteacher Susan Maddox while providing casseroles and sympathy for the other cuckolded person, Hal. Some feel she killed her spouse although the runaways were sighted in New Mexico. Even his mother spreads rumors that Susan is at fault for her favorite son vanishing.

Being fired from her teaching job and thinking the sheriff is an idiot, Susan asks the enemy for help. She wants Brian's brother, Luke to break into a hard drive that her husband used to see if there is any evidence on it to exonerate her. Luke and Susan were attracted to one another back in high school, but her mother interfered and she ended up married to his sibling, whom she remained faithful to although she never forgot her first love. As someone tries to kill her to stop her from looking into the disappearances, Luke steps in to keep the woman he loves safe.

This is an exciting romantic suspense with an intriguing twist that will surprise readers although it is obvious Colleen Thompson does a terrific job of hiding the truth. The lead couple is a fine pairing as she seeks to clear her name while he has no choice but to help her. Adding depth is the powerful look at small town living where innuendos and rumors can ruin a successful career as happened to Susan, teacher of the year last year and unemployed this year though no proof exists that she did any wrong. FATAL ERROR is a fine tale that sub-genre fans will take pleasure in reading.

Harriet Klausner