Special Agent Ava Kanas might be a rookie age but she knows beyond a doubt that her mentor, Van Stamos, did not take his own life. The problem is no one will believe her. After someone starts shooting at the agents at the funeral, Ava makes her beliefs known to the Director, which of course makes her boss look bad. That's Ava's biggest problem. She wants to be a team player but she doesn't have the patience to wade through some of the bureaucracy. They told Ava specifically she cannot investigate Van's death, but she isn't going to let a good man's reputation die with him. She intends to prove that Van's death was no "accident" while the big bosses try to sweep the whole thing under a rug.
Supervisory Special Agent Dominic Sheridan is Ava's total opposite. Sheridan is a seasoned agent and his job as a hostage negotiator means he always needs to keep a cool head and be ready to wait things out. Van was also a mentor to Sheridan once upon a time. While he wants to believe Ava that Van did not commit suicide, Sheridan knows that there aren't always visible signs to give someone away. In fact, he is just getting tired of all the funerals that he has had to attend in the last year...which makes him realize that there have been way too many fatalities from his former FBI Office. But some of those deaths were nature and some were accidents, weren't they? Could there be a connection? Could someone be targeting FBI agents? Or is Dominic just channeling some of Ava's desperation to make sense of Van's death.
Ava and Sheridan start investigating these sudden deaths on their own, even after being warned off by their boss, which might just lead to an amazing break in the case or might mean they lose their jobs.
I have been trying to grab some books from authors that I haven't read before and sadly, I have been pretty disappointed with the stories I have read so far. This was on sale last month for $.99 (big spender that I am) and the description intrigued me. I decided to give it a try between deadlines and was happily surprised by how gripping the story plot was and how the characters drew me in. We had an interesting underlying story of FBI agents being targeted and while we did have small chapters from the POV of the killer, there really wasn't much to give away who they were and I found myself quite surprised when we got to the ending. Just like in reality, Van's death and the possible FBI target (which they weren't supposed to be investigating) isn't the only case which Ava and Sheridan need to focus on so we are constantly on the move in this story.
We see the bureaucracy in the FBI at work in the different ways Ava and Sheridan are handled/disciplined by the higher ups in the agency. Ava is a rookie agent from a working class family who always wanted to be an FBI agent. Sheridan is a seasoned agent but he also has a father who is a governor and a godfather who is the President. When things go sideways for them, Ava is threatened with suspension and Dominic is threatened with being reported to internal affairs. Even though no one would have been investigating these suspicious deaths without Ava putting her neck out with the higher ups, but her astuteness is considered a discipline issue for a female rookie. In fact, it is Ava's ingenuity and her stubbornness that gets the right things happening time and time again.
We also meet some other characters who came in to assist when things heat up in the investigation who are from prior novels in the series which I am sure made fans happy and who intrigued me enough to want to read more on them.
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Reviews with images
A new series from Toni Anderson!
4.5 Stars!Toni Anderson’s Cold & Deadly is the first book in her new Cold Justice: Crossfire series. This new series is a spin-off from her original Cold Justice series. Cold & Deadly is a standalone, and while some characters from the Cold Justice series will appear in the book as secondary characters, it’s not necessary to have read any of the books in that series first.Toni Anderson never disappoints me with her books. This story starts off with a bang and is filled with twists and turns while effortlessly blending in some romance.Ava Kanas is a badass rookie FBI agent. After her friend and mentor dies of an apparent suicide, she’s the only one that feels he was murdered. She stands up to her superiors to fight for what she believes, even though it goes against the way things are done in the FBI.Dominic Sheridan sees something in Agent Kanas. He can not only tell that she’s good at her job, but he is also attracted to her. He works with her to find the truth about what happened to their friend, while trying to fight their attraction to one another at the same time.I loved Ava and Dominic together. They worked well together while on the job, and I also felt they worked well together as a couple.I really look forward to seeing where this series is headed!
Top reviews from other countries
Tina
Romantischer Thriller - schnell, spannend und nicht seicht!
Reviewed in Germany on March 9, 2019
