Death Echo (St. Kilda Consulting, 4)

Elizabeth Lowell's newest book was excellent. It's set with the St. Kilda's organization so you see several characters from other storylines again. I thought the new characters were very good along with the twists and suspense holding on right up to the very end.

She left her field CIA work for what she assumed would be a much safer position. Thus former agent Emma Cross now works at St. Kilda Consulting in what has to be an easier job than being caught in the crossfire of tribal combat as she previously was. St. Kilda looks into a simple incident of a vanished yacht the Black Swan that probably was stolen. The mission is to get on board the Black Swan's identical twin Blackbird as the insurance company thinks the second vessel is actually the missing ship. Emma and former special op officer Mackenzie Durand are in charge of the assignment. He trusts no one as he believes the CIA betrayed his team on a dangerous mission five years ago in which he was the only survivor. In spite of his attraction to his partner, he prefers going alone as no one has his back. Still as he takes control of the Blackbird, Emma must overcome her instincts of also distrusting everyone if she is to learn what is going on; neither expected to fall in love or be back in the CIA's deadly outreach. Death Echo is an action-packed romantic suspense espionage thriller that remains at an incredibly high speed yet enables the audience to understand what motivates the powerful distrust in the two lead characters. That pairing of two classic misanthropic skeptics whose similar pasts come back full throttle makes for a taut St. Kilda thriller (see Blue Smoke and Murder, and The Wrong Hostage). Harriet Klausner

Lowell packs a lot of action into a seven day period in her latest entry into the St. Kilda series. Former CIA agent Emma Cross joins St. Kilda to leave behind the duplicity, betrayals, and blood and guts of her previous job. Mackenzie Durand, a deadly trained special ops survivor with a life that went to hell in Afghanistan has decided to sail boats instead of shoot guns. St. Kilda has received information that the yacht Blackbird is going to be used in a lethal plot against an American city. Emma and Mac are teamed up to sail the Blackbird to her meeting point with the 'bad' guys. And of course in the best tradition of romantic suspense, there are several others watching the Blackbird's progress too--both good and bad factions. Having just reread Lowell's To the Ends of the Earth which was one of my favorite oldies of hers--I found myself years later viewing it with much more negativity in terms of how the heroine let the hero verbally abuse her and then took him back etc. So jumping into Death Echo with two strong characters and a tense, well crafted plot, I sometimes found myself thinking was this the same Elizabeth Lowell? Her skills as a writer have definitely developed and come along way from her sappy romantic novels with their insipid heroines and tortured heroes. Death Echo is a tightly crafted and suspenseful novel with two strong protagonists. Lowell also has interactions between Mac and Emma with Joe and Grace Faroe and their genuis computer son Lane who are featured in previous St. Kilda books. I hope at some point she'll write Lane's story. The book does have a lot of information on boats and boating so if you really hate that subject you may find yourself drifting. Personally I found it interesting and always appreciate when an author cares enough to research his/her subject in depth to make me feel as though I am part of the story. At times I felt like I was on the boat getting ready to do some sailorly thing! All and all a good addition to the series.

This is the next book in the St. Kilda series, all of which have been good suspense stories. This is no exception. St Kilda has been contracted to locate and recover (if possible) a stolen 40 foot high-end yacht. Meanwhile, Ambassador Steele, head of St. Kilda, has been approached by a ranking CIA official indicating that the yacht may be carrying a nuclear weapon. The CIA wants it found and neutralized. MacKenzie "Mac" Durand left the CIA five years ago, when he lost his Special Ops team to betrayal; Mac was the only survivor. Now he is a Transit Captain delivering new yachts to their owners. Emma Cross has just joined St. Kilda, intending to remove herself from the dangers of her CIA operative status. She is assigned to this investigation, since she is new to St Kilda and the usual foreign suspects will not suspect her. Like earlier St. Kilda stories, Death Echo builds from the first suggestion of a threat to the US. The reader can easily anticipate that Mac and Emma will become lovers, but the route there is fraught with death threats and attacks by the true owners of the new yacht. How the threatening weapon is carried, where it is hidden, and how Mac and Emma discover and disable it all contribute to the constant building of the reader's adrenaline level as the story progresses. Lowell's writing is excellent, as her many fans will attest. Well worth reading.

This is not a romance novel, this is a romantic suspense novel. I wanted to knock points off Death Echo for failing to be a romance before I realized that wasn't really fair. Death Echo doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. Judged on those merits, it excels. Despite setting up a very short time frame (a week), an almost excessive number of players (you need a cluster for a - well, you get the idea), a high level of information dumping (all about luxury yachts and the operation of them) Lowell delivers a tale with real suspense. There might not be any doubt that St. Kilda's team will prevail, but there is plenty of doubt about how. Death Echo reads like a Bond movie and it requires the same suspension of disbelief as governments creak into action and resources appear seemingly without restrictions. However, the abilities and motivations of Emma and Mac easily pass the plausibility test. Where I might fault Death Echo is in character development. Emma and Max meet each other, like each other, and get on with the adventure. There's not going to be any soul searching going on here. They've got a week and they've got a lot to do so there's no time for angst. Also, the humanizing of Joe Faroe via a small child with a teething cookie goes on far too long (The side character is a family man. Got it. One day our hero could be just like him! Got it. Faroe is gruff but he loves kids! OK! Let's move on!) while hints at the history of St. Kilda's wheelchair bound leader are scattered lightly about without any resolution. Overall, I really enjoyed Death Echo. I found myself annoyed when I had to set it down to attend to my actual life. I'd love to see a film version of this book. There's just something very Big Screen about it.