Sandra Brown - Seeing Red

Kerra Bailey is a TV journalist hot on the trail of a story guaranteed to skyrocket her career to new heights: an interview with Major Franklin Trapper, a reclusive American hero who once led a handful of survivors to safety after the bombing of a Dallas hotel. Kerra is willing to do anything to get an exclusive with the Major-even if she has to secure an introduction from his ill-mannered and volatile son, former ATF agent John Trapper.
Trapper was fired from the ATF during his investigation into the same hotel bombing, and now he wants nothing to do with his father. Yet Kerra's hints that there's more to the story rouse Trapper's interest despite himself. And when the interview goes catastrophically awry-with assailants targeting both the Major and Kerra-Trapper realizes he needs her under wraps if he's going to track down the gunmen...and finally discover who was responsible for the Dallas bombing.
Kerra is wary of a man so devastatingly charming one moment and dangerous the next, and she knows Trapper is withholding evidence from his ATF investigation. But having no one else to trust and enemies lurking closer than they know, Kerra and Trapper join forces to expose a sinuous network of lies and conspiracy-and uncover who would want a national hero dead.
Comment: This is another one of Sandra Brown's books I had in the pile to read. I could have chosen one of three and this one's blurb really caught my attention the most.

In this book we meet heroine Kerra Bailey, a journalist who has managed the interview many sought: a meeting with Major Trapper, a national hero who years ago saved a small group from a bomb attack and who got to be immortalized on a famous picture.

However, there's a special reason Kerra feels she should be the one to do it, something the viewers will find incredible. The problem is that the Major has become a reclusive and has been denying interviews. That means Kerra tries to appeal to the Major's son, John, so he could convince his father but it seems the two of them don't have the best relationship.

When Kerra explains why she is special, John can't help but want to talk to her to confirm and eventually she is given the opportunity to do the interview. What no one would guess is how she and the Major are attacked right after that surprising interview and even more, how that attack has to be related to the bomb of all those years ago...

I have read plenty of books by Sandra Brown. Not all of them, but many and both her suspense and her romance stories. I cannot say I'm an expert but I've come to get an idea of her style and tactics.

Meaning this that this story seemed to offer the best of both worlds - the plot felt interesting without being another of her books on chasing bad buys and the romance was promising because the two protagonists seemed to be antagonists at first but I could already guess the path this would take.

I was a little wrong. Expectations are difficult to ignore, though, and we always have some ideas of what we would like to read about... I thought this would go a certain way but the usual tactic of red herrings and people not being what they seem to at first was once again the big twist. It's not that this was such a surprise or a bad story on its whole but I kind of wish things had been done a different way.

Something that is quite recurrent in the author's plots is how we are led to believe one things and then something happens and there's a twist. Now, if these things were such an intrinsic part of the story that this was the only way to keep a secret or the suspense going, I could accept it, as it happens on those stories where we only have a certain POV and in the end we see it as it is (think Agatha Christie where the final explanation makes sense even with what we had read).

The thing here is that, unlike that, the characters are deceiving and that is only to keep up with the act. It's not a natural development of the story but just a tactic to delay the reader knowing the big picture. Many authors do this and it can work if the characters are central or have a specific purpose. I don't have that feeling with mrs Brown's books, so when the truth is revealed, it makes the plot feel rather weak and disappointing because it's like the reader has to be kept in the dark on purpose.

In some books by her, this isn't so bad if the plot is a great one or if the characters are amazing. But in this one, I think the possibilities were not the best to be chosen.

The actual plot of this book isn't too bad but to be honest, the full explanation for why the "bad guys" act the way they is simply too inconsequential to really believe in. Such a silly idea...I think some descriptions of the reasons why things happened were really pushing it into credibility. I mean, not that it couldn't be so but in a book where there's time to plan stuff... ehh...

Plus, the mastermind behind this was so obvious to me, I can't even be that surprised. I tend to not guess the secrets early and I admit I don't make such an effort, after all the fun is to follow the story and be wowed. In this case the big bad guy was obvious from the start and his reasoning to act like that? Really weak and pointless.

The romance between Kerra and John, if we can call it that, was fast, set on too much simplicity and hormones. I don't really buy into that notion of "connection". In most of her suspense books, the plots don't take long enough to be concluded but a fast pace isn't too good for believable love stories developing, at least not in such a romantic way. I suppose I could go with a HFN in terms of how things play out. There are exceptions and those wonderful books still give me hope for each new one, though... the goal of any reader...

Everything considered, this was a good one by the author but yes, comparing to others I've read and liked more, this wasn't such a good one. Good but could be so much better. I was entertained but not so devoted I could forget other tasks I had to do.

Grade: 6/10