Edge of Danger by Katie Reus

Narrated by Sophie Eastlake

I’m a fan of romantic suspense but I admit it can be hard to satisfy me with the right balance of suspense and romance. Katie Reus seems to get it just right for me and Edge of Danger (Deadly Ops series, book 4) is another example of why. Both main characters are really smart and don’t behave in ways designed only to further the plot, and there is no sex while being shot at. Sure the romance was (really) fast but the epilogue at the end helped a little there, as it takes place six months after the main story.

Tucker Pankov is a member of an undercover team in the DEA. I haven’t read this entire series, but I gather he had a small part in the previous book, when he was deep undercover as a psychopathic thug known as “Grisha”.

Tucker and his three colleagues are shocked and saddened to hear about the death of their boss and mentor, DEA Deputy Director Max Suthers, in a violent carjacking. Things take a more dangerous turn shortly after when each has a hitman come for them and Tucker’s team are then (falsely) linked to a missing drone and an Iranian Shia terrorist group. Tucker and the boys go on the lam and try and make contact with Suthers’ friend and confidante, NSA Director Wesley Burkhart. They don’t know Wesley but Max trusted him and they have nowhere else to turn.

Unfortunately, Burkhart is in Germany when the distress call goes out and hasn’t checked his email (this, when I think about it, does seem a little unbelievable, but I think it might not have been his regular email account?). In any event, the boys cook up a desperate plan to get Burkhart’s attention: they will abduct Karen Stafford, Burkhart’s personal assistant and a talented NSA analyst in her own right, in order to ensure they make contact with the man himself.

Karen Stafford is initially terrified at being kidnapped by four guys dressed as special ops ninjas but she quickly realises they have gone out of their way not to hurt her and she finds herself believing Tucker’s story.

Tucker sends his men to a safe house while he and Karen go to meet Burkhart. On the way, they are attacked by yet another killer-for-hire and this time Karen is in the crosshairs as well. It seems clear there is a mole in the DEA and perhaps someone in the police department as well.

There follows a race against time as Tucker, his men, Karen, Burkhart, and the NSA Deadly Ops team try to find out who is behind the plot and the reasons for it, before anyone else is killed and before the stolen drone is used again on American soil to murder innocent victims.

In the meantime, Karen and Tucker become (quickly) close and, in a period of downtime, act on their mutual attraction.

The main action takes place over only 2-3 days so there is obviously not a lot of time for Karen and Tucker to get to know one another. I could accept their attraction and their mutual trust after what they went through together but I did think the “I love you’s” came a bit soon.

The suspense portion of the book is gripping and all too plausible unfortunately. The tension of the story as well as the chemistry of the main characters kept me glued to my earbuds.

Sophie Eastlake is a favourite narrator of mine. My immersion in the book was certainly enhanced by Ms. Eastlake’s pacing and her characterisations.

Fortunately, there is not a lot of time when Tucker and his three colleagues are in one space together because where the narration was slightly disappointing (but only slightly) was when the four were talking. I couldn’t tell who was who; they all sounded the same. I was only partly assisted by dialogue tags here because they were not in the text for every line of speech. Ordinarily, this would make me happy – dialogue tags can seem redundant in an audiobook where the characters are well differentiated. But in that portion of the book I admit to getting a bit lost.

Other male characters had different tones, some due to accent and some due to the age of the cast member, but Ms. Eastlake seems to have one standard “hero” voice and she used it liberally here.

Luckily, for a lot of the book it was just Karen and Tucker and it was certainly easy to tell them apart.

In all other respects, the narration was to Ms. Eastlake’s usual high standards. I think Eastlake and Reus is a perfect pairing of author and narrator and I’m looking forward to more from this team.

Kaetrin

Narration: B+

Book Content: B+

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Fighting, Explosions

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Edge of Danger was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.