Sandra Brown - Lethal

When her four year old daughter informs her a sick man is in their yard, Honor Gillette rushes out to help him. But that "sick" man turns out to be Lee Coburn, the man accused of murdering seven people the night before. Dangerous, desperate, and armed, he promises Honor that she and her daughter won't be hurt as long as she does everything he asks. She has no choice but to accept him at his word.
But Honor soon discovers that even those close to her can't be trusted. Coburn claims that her beloved late husband possessed something extremely valuable that places Honor and her daughter in grave danger. Coburn is there to retrieve it -- at any cost. From FBI offices in Washington, D.C., to a rundown shrimp boat in coastal Louisiana, Coburn and Honor run for their lives from the very people sworn to protect them, and unravel a web of corruption and depravity that threatens not only them, but the fabric of our society.

Comment: It's been some time since I've read a book by this author. Some of her older books are still some of my favorite romances as well. I tend to like her romantic suspense stories as well and since this one was in the pile, this month I decided to pick it up.

In this novel, we meet Lee Coburn, a man accused of murdering seven people and who deceives Honor Gillette into letting him use her house as a hiding spot. Lee is dangerous but he doesn't hurt Honor nor her small daughter, Emily. And he seems to be looking for something of her late husband, Eddie, something related to the deaths of those seven people. Will Honor be able to trust Lee, even more so when there seems to be a man hunting that will lead to her house? And what does it mean when Honor starts to believe Lee's words when he says he's innocent?

Of course an author with so many books published won't  always have readers liking her work equally. Some books will just seem to work out better than others and because there are more to be able to make the comparison with, it's easier to have even more different opinions all around. With this I mean to say that although some time has passed since I read a book by the author, having loved several of her books, I feel a little bit disappointed I didn't love this one as well, but the reality is this sounded a bit weaker for me in terms of general narrative.

I liked some elements, but when I think about the whole picture, it wasn't as amazing as imagined, not like other readers have obviously liked it.

This is a romantic suspense story, so it has strong mystery elements, namely who the bad guy could be. I had my suspicious and they were proved right. I don't think it's predictable but it gets to a certain point where it makes sense.

We also have the romance but this element happened a bit too quickly in terms of resolution for it be as strong as I feel would have been better.

The romance had a bit of that idea of "running along together", which basically means Lee and Honor sort of joined forces to discover the villain. There's a certain risk and adventure side in this that brings them together even if not intentionally. They are attracted to one another and the end is relatively easy to guess. But the epilogue where we see if they do end up together is too open ended. We assume they will be together but we not only don't see it as we don't know it for certain, it's simply implicit. t certainly helps in letting us have an idea about the HEA but it's not the same as really having it and "seeing" it. I did hope for more in this aspect, even admitting the main focus in the novel isn't the romance per se.

As for the plot, it had some interesting scenes, especially by how careful the author was when trying to write things in a way that wouldn't compromise the villain's identity. I wasn't as shocked as the story aimed for and I also think this wasn't the best work the author can give. Some parts of the story didn't have the impact one would expect from a suspense novel.

On a side note, and this is something completely random and personal, I was a bit annoyed at the font used in my copy. It isn't a small, efficient font, something I tend to associate with suspense novels. It made the words lack some impact as well. Yes, I know, it's not the story nor the author's fault. But it did affect my reading experience.

All in all, this was a good book to spend time reading but it wasn't as marvelous as I expected.

Grade: 6/10