Cold Red by Fiona Quinn

Narrated by Troy Duran

I chose to review Fiona Quinn’s Cold Red – book two in her FBI Joint Task Force series – because I’d really enjoyed book one, Open Secret, which I found to be a fast-paced and compelling thriller that kept me pretty much glued to it from start to finish. FBI Joint Task Force is a mini-series that falls under the author’s wider Iniquus World of “high stakes national security” (so says Ms. Quinn’s website), but although there are recurring characters who appear or are namechecked, both of these books work fine as standalones. But just to be contrary, I was a little bit disappointed that Cold Red isn’t related to Open Secret by plot or character; I’d so enjoyed the main plotline in that book that I’d hoped for more.

Anastasia Senko – Anna – is a former army ranger and current member of the Asymmetric Warfare Group, and is deep undercover as part of her mission to find out who is behind the technology being used to disrupt US military satellite communications in Syria and Iraq. The AWG has reason to believe it’s coming from Slovakia; specifically from computers belonging to the powerful Zoric family (which has links to the Russian FSB), and Anna’s facility with the Slovakian language means she’s been sent to infiltrate the Zoric family to gather intelligence. Her most recent assignment for the Zorics is to babysit Johnathan, a wealthy social-climber looking for an “in” with the Russians, who is also funding a supremacist militia group, the Southern Iron Cross.

 The story starts – literally – with a bang, as an FBI SWAT team enters a house in West Virginia to arrest Johnathan and Anna, and she’s instantly planning to escape and evade, as per the instructions given by her commander at the SIC. It’s not going to be easy; she’s going to have to get Johnathan away as well, and one of the two FBI agents escorting them is definitely going to be a problem. Special Agent Steve Finley is strong, fit, sharp-edged, and not at all the type to miss a trick – as she discovers when he swiftly removes her boot laces and the weapons concealed in the heels while strapping her into the back of their transport vehicle.

When Finley tells her they’re going to Washington D.C – a six hour drive away – Anna immediately knows something is off. The question is… what? She still hasn’t come up with any answers when, with bad weather coming in and driving conditions across the mountain route they’ve been directed along becoming increasingly dangerous, the car loses its grip on the icy road and goes end-over-end, over the edge of the road and down the side of the mountain.

Johnathan and the other FBI agent are thrown from the car and Finley, still in the driver’s seat, is unconscious. Anna finds the bodies of the other two passengers, and on searching Special Agent Mulvaney’s clothing, is surprised to find the woman had two cell phones – one obviously her ‘regular’ one with contacts of friends and family on, the other with a single contact, and a text history containing a series of explicit photos of Mulvaney and a man Anna realises (from looking at the photos on the other phone) isn’t her husband. She was having an affair and the photos were used to blackmail her into making sure Anna never reached DC. Worse, the FBI will have no idea where to look for them, whereas whoever set them up will be able to find them easily. They’re miles from anywhere in hostile conditions, and Anna has to get away from the wreck fast – but before that she’s got to decide if she can trust Finley or not.

Anna is a kick-ass heroine and her training and background have given her the knowledge and skills needed to give them both the best chance of survival. She’s supremely competent and used to thinking on her feet, all of it confirming what Finley had suspected from the start, that she’s obviously had some sort of military training – which doesn’t mesh with her being a member of the SIC. And while Finley is currently riding a desk job at the FBI (owing to a serious screw up on a previous mission) he’s former Task Force, so he’s no slouch when it comes to tactics and strategy and together they make a pretty good team. The bulk of the story is a two-hander as Anna and Finley – who has sustained a head injury – have to rely on each other in order to survive the freezing conditions, evade their pursuers and find their way back to civilisation.

The action/suspense part of the story is mostly to do with Anna and Finley battling the elements and trying to work out who wants them dead (and why). A connection develops between them as they discuss their theories and improvise shelters and survival techniques, but the romance in the story is pretty perfunctory. Both characters acknowledge an attraction to the other (and I like that Steve is all about Anna’s confidence and badassery rather than her looks), but given they spend most of the book fighting for survival, the fact that they don’t jump each other’s bones (even though there are a couple of “we must snuggle to conserve body heat” moments) makes sense. For one thing, Finley is likely concussed, and for another, it’s life or death and they have to keep their wits about them, and I preferred that approach to those stories where the hero and heroine start shagging while the bullets are flying! I would definitely have liked the book to have had more room for a romance to develop, but the book ends with a strong HFN as Steve and Anna decide they want to give a relationship a try.

Troy Duran is a popular narrator of romance, but he’s new-to-me, and was another reason I wanted to listen to Cold Red for review. He has a smooth, deep voice that is easy on the ear, and his performance is clearly enunciated and generally well-paced – if a little slow in the narrative. He performs the female roles well, adopting a slightly higher pitch and softened timbre, and differentiates effectively between the secondary characters, adopting appropriate and consistent accents where needed. As I’ve said above, the majority of the book is just Steve and Anna (which Mr. Duran annoyingly pronounces “Uhnna” for some reason) so there aren’t many other characters anyway, and the conversations between the two of them are naturally rhythmic and well-nuanced. I’ll definitely be on the look-out for more of his narrations.

Cold Red comes in at just over six hours so isn’t a lengthy listen, but although I did like the storyline, the lack of romance in a book categorised as a romantic suspense title was disappointing. The story is fast-paced, clever and entertaining and Troy Duran’s narration is definitely worth the price of admission – but if you want more romance along with your suspense, it might not be the best choice.

Caz

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