DEATH ANGEL

Death Angel

by

Linda Howard

7/18/2009

In Linda Howard’s gifted hands, second chances, unexpected romance, and unrelenting action combine into a riveting new novel of suspense. In Death Angel, bad girls can wake up and trust their hearts, bad guys can fight for what’s right . . . and dying just might be the only way to change one’s life.

A striking beauty with a taste for diamonds and dangerous men, Drea Rousseau is more than content to be arm candy for Rafael Salinas, a notorious crime lord who deals with betrayal through quick and treacherous means: a bullet to the back of the head, a blade across the neck, an incendiary device beneath a car. Eager to break with Rafael, Drea makes a fateful decision and a desperate move, stealing a mountain of cash from the malicious killer. After all, an escape needs to be financed.

Though Drea runs, Salinas knows she can’t hide–and he dispatches a cold-blooded assassin in hot pursuit, resulting in a tragic turn of events. Or does it?

Left for dead, Drea miraculously returns to the realm of the living a changed woman. She’s no longer shallow and selfish, no longer steals or cheats or sells herself short. Both humbled and thrilled with this unexpected second chance, Drea embraces her new life. But in order to feel safe and sound–and stop nervously looking over her shoulder–she will need to take down those who marked her for death.

Joining forces with the FBI, supplying vital inside information that only she can provide, Drea finds herself working with the most dangerous man she’s ever known. Yet the closer they get to danger, the more intense their feelings for each other become, and the more Drea realizes that the cost of her new life may be her life itself–as well as her heart.
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**** (4 Stars) Though she doesn’t seem to write like she used to, I thought this was a better-than-average Linda Howard book. In fact, at times I thought I was reading an Anne Stuart book. I liked the twist on the story being told from the other side “the bad guys’ point-of-view). With this story, Ms. Howard wants us to know that there are levels of bad, and some are justifiable. I bought it for the duration of the story.

In the beginning, I couldn’t put my finger on either Drea or Simon. Was someone undercover? Were they just both bad and tired of it? How do I sympathize with them? The first few pages start out with a red-hot sex scene on a balcony (reminded me a little of “Kill and Tell” (also by Howard), and then the sex dries up for many, many chapters but the time in between is spent learning the characters and what makes them tick. I found out when the book was over, that I could sympathize with both characters (not that I know what it is like to be as assassin or arm candy. LOL.)