The month of January saw Harlequin's Love Inspired Historical line with two stories set in the Regency era, so I made plans to purchase those two books. However, I did pick them up from Walmart Canada, which offers three Harlequin books for $15 as opposed to buying the titles for $6.75 each. This is how I ended up choosing Countdown to Danger, a Love Inspired Suspense novel as my third choice to take advantage of the $15 deal.
Countdown to Danger contains two novellas, Alive After New Year, by Hannah Alexander, and New Year's Target,by Jill Elizabeth Nelson. I have read and enjoyed some of Ms. Nelson's previous work such as Witness to Murder, which I really loved, Evidence of Murder, which takes place in the same universe as Witness to Murder, and Calculated Revenge.
Hannah Alexander is a pseudonym for a wife and husband writing team, Cheryl and Mel Hodde. Their biographical blurb in the book sounded interesting; apparently she was ambushed into a blind date with him by their pastor, and upon finding out that Mel was a doctor, asked him if he could help her paralyze someone. That was when she revealed to him that she was writing a novel. Since then, they have co-written a number of novels, one of which had won a Christy Award for Best Romance in 2004.
In Alive After New Year, Lynley Marshall, a triage nurse, has her life threatened through a message conveyed by an anonymous note, unless her family forks over a large amount of money to keep her safe from harm. John Russell, the new police chief with whom Lynley has developed a friendship with, thinks that something is off about the note. There is a genuine threat against Lynley's life; the events that follow demonstrate that she is in danger, but the obvious suspects that the note seems to point to do not make sense to him. While they are wracking their brains to discover who the real culprits are, both Lynley and John must work through issues that keep them from taking their platonic friendship to a romantic one. Lynley, who had been through a divorce from a man who was unfaithful, is reluctant to make herself vulnerable to another man, and John, a widower, is still trying to heal from the loss of his wife to cancer and feels guilt at the thought of finding new love with another woman.
With some mystery and suspense stories, sometimes I am able to guess who the villain is early on, but I didn't with this one, although hints are given through the pacing of the plot and the number of chapters and pages remaining after each revelation of who the guilty party might be. The one quibble that I have with this novella is that there were some acronyms or abbreviations related to medicine or law enforcement that I was not familiar with, which may be common knowledge for those who live in the United States. However, those items were few and far in between, so it didn't detract much from my enjoyment of this story.
In New Year's Target, Seattle detective Cassidy Ferris is shot at while going down a ski run in Aspen, Colorado. Her rescuer is Tim Halstead, her childhood nemesis. He's a legal aid attorney who is now situated in San Franscisco. New Year's Target is a bit of a Romeo and Juliet story, except Juliet really doesn't like Romeo even though she is attracted to him. Besides the personal enmity between Cassidy and Tim, there has been bad blood between the Ferris and Halstead families since the death of Cassidy's cousin, Francine. Francine died in a fire caused by a short in a faulty electrical box while living in a tenement building owned by the Halsteads.
Tim has always had a crush on Cassidy since they were kids, but didn't know how to show it appropriately and ended up tormenting her instead. Now that they are reunited as adults, he vacillates back and forth over wanting to be near her or desiring to give her space, recognizing that their past history may be something that can never be overcome. However, they continue to be thrown together in Aspen when it becomes clear that Cassidy is not the only one whose life is being threatened; Tim's life is endangered as well. With death threats and danger escalating against them, Cassidy and Tim must work together to find out who is behind the attacks.
I found the villain to be a little bit over the top and one dimensional when we finally discover who this person is. However, with the limitations of a novella, there isn't room for more development of this character. We get exposed to much of this person's evil all at once for the climax of the story, although we read allusions to it earlier on. What I really liked about this story was the romantic tension between Cassidy and Tim. I liked the quick pacing and development of this story, and between Alive After New Year, and New Year's Target, I enjoyed the latter more, although the former was a good story too.
