Under Cover of Darkness

I've read several LI Suspense novels, but this is the first I've posted a review on because I think it's worth recommending. The others I never finished. I hate it when I get bored with a story, but it happens. Fortunately, this one doesn't put you to sleep. In fact, I enjoyed it very much. The La Migra and all of the Spanish sayings and Mexican culture are familiar to me as an Arizona resident. I think the author did a bang-up job making me feel part of the setting enough where I could escape in my mind to the world she wrote about. The thugs were creepy and dangerous enough to keep me wondering how bad those bad guys really were. The coolest thing is I didn't figure it out right away. She had me surprised with the conclusion, and I like that. I also loved how she showed the conflict people have who live in border states in regards to helping illegals versus reporting them. The compassion in most Americans wants to help, yet their presence here is illegal and trafficking of illegals is a dangerous business. An entire truckload of illegals were literally strewn all over the highway after a chase a few years back. They were stacked on top of each other in the back of a pickup. Very sad. I highly recommend this story as it's relevant to today's issues and well-written. The only thing I didn't care for was the lack of physical contact between the hero and heroine. It was more suspense than actual romance, IMHO.

Meg St John is a landscape designer in Fort Worth, Texas. Although she has a masters degree in landscape architecture, her employer felt she was too inexperienced to bring into a management position until she spends at least one year in the field directly supervising projects. Meg doesn't mind too much. She has learned the business from the ground up and is well liked and respected by her crew, primarily made up of Hispanic laborers from Mexico. Near the end of her year in the field, Meg is given an assignment that has a humanly impossible deadline. Restoring a historic turn of the century estate to its former grandeur in time for the wedding of a board member's daughter. Sam, her supervisor, brings in Jack Torres to "kill two birds with one stone." Jack is there to assist her with her summer project and at the same time to be trained to take Meg's place when she is promoted to management. What Meg doesn't know is that Jack is an undercover border patrol agent, investigating a smuggling ring with suspected connections to her employer. Jack's partner Rico was killed a year earlier when they were patrolling the border. Jack suspects that the same people running the smuggling ring he is currently investigating were involved. Meg and Jack are drawn to each other, despite their very different backgrounds. Meg is close to her family and has been a believer for many years. She is optimistic, spunky, and has a heart to care for those she loves. Jack doesn't even know who his father is or where his mother is. Because of Jack's job he has learned to be a loner and share very little of himself with others. Rico, his partner, had shared Christ with him but died shortly after Jack accepted Christ, so he has had little chance to grow in his new faith. Meg's persistence finally gets Jack to attend her Spanish/English church, where he begins to find answers to his questions and learn that God truly has a plan for him. But the more Jack comes to care for Meg, the more he believes that he is not the man for her. Life as the wife of an undercover border patrol agent would take her away from her family, job and everyone that she loves. It would also put her in danger, and he would do anything to keep her safe. This was a quick read and a very enjoyable story. I'm hoping that there will be a book somewhere down the line with Meg's roommate, Bernadette (Benny), as the main character. The bits of her background revealed in this book are crying out for a story of their own.

Courtesy of Love Romances Jack Torres' partner on Border Patrol has recently been killed. This tragedy causes Jack to lose all faith and has turned him into a man whose only goal is vengeance. Now Jack's mission has brought him to Ft. Worth, Texas, to go deep undercover and try to find the men running trade in illegal immigration across the border from Mexico. He never expects that his mission will lead him to the one person who can help him find his trust in God once more. Meg St. John is a landscape designer who doesn't like the INS because they are always causing problems for her crew. She is too kind and innocent to realize what is happening right under her nose. Meeting Jack has put her in danger and affected her more than she'd like. Someone knows Jack's secret and will stop at nothing to prevent him from fulfilling his mission. Will his new found faith in his Savior be enough to save him and Meg? What of the slowly blossoming relationship between Jack and Meg? Will she still care for him when she knows the truth about his identity? Under Cover of Darkness by Elizabeth White is a sweet tale of finding hope and redemption in unlikely places. Meg's faith in God is an inherent part of her being and shows itself in every single aspect of her life. It makes her the strong, happy woman she is and provides her with everything she needs. Jack's arrival in her life shakes things up a bit for her, but she helps him to discover what is most important in life. Without this aspect of the story, it would have been very different, and probably not as heart warming. The idea of basing a story on the unfortunate practice of running what amounts to nothing more than slave labor through illegal immigration is an intriguing one. This subject matter provides the suspense that runs through the story. Readers are kept guessing as to who exactly the enemies are, and how much they know about Jack's mission. This reviewer thought she had the villain pegged, only to find out in the end she couldn't have been more wrong. The necessity of Jack keeping his cover provides plenty of tension between him and Meg, as she tries to come to terms with who she thinks he is. Jack is torn over his attraction to Meg. He knows what happened to his late partner's family and does not want to put someone else through that agony. Under Cover of Darkness is sure to appeal to readers who love a sweet story of love and have their own strong faith in God. One will come to understand, if they don't already realize, that all anyone has to do is trust in God and He will bring them through the strongest of tribulations. Faith is all that is required for people to find what they need most. © Kelley A. Hartsell, December 2005. All rights reserved.