Author: Burt Weissbourd
Publisher: Blue City Press
Publication Date: September 2020
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Buy the Book: Amazon | B&N | Audible
Description: It took fourteen years to construct a safe world for her and her son-- and only one night for her ex to unravel it.
Celebrated Seattle restaurateur Callie James is more than a little thrown when her ex-husband, French investigative reporter Daniel Odile-Grand, shows up after fourteen years asking for her help. Even more disturbing: as she throws him out, Daniel is deliberately hit by a car, hurled through the front window of her restaurant--broken, bloody and unconscious. He flees from the hospital and breaks into Callie's apartment, where he passes out. Reluctantly, Callie hides him. When she gets back to her restaurant, two assassins walk in, insisting that she find Daniel for them by tonight or pay the consequences.
Overwhelmed and hopelessly out of her depth, Callie hires the only man she knows who can help her: Cash Logan, her former bartender, a man she had arrested for smuggling ivory through her restaurant two years earlier, and who still hasn't forgiven her.
The assassins blow up her restaurant. It's Callie's nightmare. And the worst is yet to come as she and her unlikely, incompatible ally discover that the most perilous dangers are far closer to home than they'd imagined.
My Thoughts: The story started out really slow for me and there were a lot of characters to meet and get to know before anything of noteworthy importance happens. Callie James has rebuilt her life with her son after her marriage to a French philandering journalist ends with her pregnant and her husband not wanting anything to do with the child. Fast forward fourteen years and Callie has found success in Seattle with her restaurant and raising her son. Her life is moving forward as she wants it until the day her ex-husband comes into her restaurant asking for her help. She throws him out and after he is deliberately run down in front of her, Callie agrees to hide him. Getting to this point seemed to take a long time, but the story quickly takes off from here. She is confronted by some hired thugs looking for Daniel who threaten her and that’s just the beginning. Callie decides to seek the help of Cash, a former employee she turned in to the authorities for smuggling a few years prior. She knows he has connections and will know what to do.
I was really surprised Cash agreed to anything, especially helping Callie. He is pretty bitter and appears to carry a grudge. He demands an exorbitant amount of money and the deed to her restaurant in exchange for his help and, of course, Callie agrees. I really liked Cash and his associates, Doc and Andre. On the surface, they appear to be laid back without a care in the world but are really seasoned mercenaries who take their assignment of protecting Callie and her son seriously.
Things go from bad to worse when her restaurant gets blown up and it seems there is no where she can go and be safe. I understood why she was helping Daniel, but I really resented this character through most of the book. He cheats on her, flushes their marriage down the toilet and tells her she has no right to have a child he doesn’t want, but has the unmitigated gall to show up expecting her to help him because his latest investigative story has gotten the attention of some very bad people who are not going to sit back and allow themselves to be exposed by Daniel. Sucks to be you, Daniel. Luckily for him, Callie has a bigger heart and believes it’s important for her son to know his father.
My Final Verdict: I ended up enjoying this story, though the romance between Callie and Cash seemed ill-timed and out of place in this story. I feel that plot device would have better introduced in the second or third book. With their previous history, I had a hard time accepting their feelings were legitimate. I am curious to see where this series goes next and fans of the thriller genre will find this an enjoyable read.
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Danger in Plain Sight from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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