Synopsis: 'FBI agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich...and Dane Carver are nearly killed while trying to rescue popular entertainer Pinky Womack from kidnappers. Lured to a motel in Pumis City, Virginia, by a known snitch, the only thing the agents discover is a glowing red timer. The place is demolished in a catastrophic explosion, but everyone survives.

The same snitch leads them to Arlington National Cemetery, promising the agents Pinky's safe return. The search is interrupted when Savich takes a fateful call on his cell. The mysterious caller taunts Savich with other threats-against him, and against his wife, fellow agent Lacey Sherlock. Up against an untraceable foe-not even MAX can locate him-Savich and Sherlock find themselves fighting an unstable villain with a very long memory.

At the same time, Agent Ruth Warnecki's passion for treasure hunting leads her to Winkel's Cave and a cave chamber that really shouldn't exist-as well as a dead student from Stanislaus Music School, left there for eternity. Some students have wandered quite far from the beaten path, with terrible consequences.'

Review: This is not one of her better efforts. The editing was abysmal. The story was okay, but the entire presentation was not memorable. ( )

FBI Thriller

Agents Sherlock and Savich chase two serial killers on the loose, while in rural Appalachia, another FBI agent who was exploring a cave turns up with a head injury and no memory of how she got lost in the snow. Bodies begin turning up and they seem connected to the local music school.

Trigger Warnings: rape ( )

Catherine Coulter comes out with another explosive FBI thriller. The Winkel's Cave holdsmany hidden secrets from the past. Ruth Warnecki is determined to find what lays ahead of her in her adventure to unseal a hidden room that she believes is there in that cave but not on her original map. However, nothing ever goes as intended. Murder is sometimes lurking around tight squeasing cubby holes just at you make an entrence into some other exit.....Why a murder.....read on....Very inticing book...........Banjo

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I have a little time between deadlines now so I dug into the latest bag of books a friend gave me and pulled out this Catherine Coulter paperback. It's one of her FBI thrillers so I knew I would enjoy it. Her star characters, FBI agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock, are married now and have a son. They are like old friends. I can count on their adventures being both scary and full of relationships that captivate me.

Point Blank begins with their colleague Ruth Warnecki caving in Virginia as she follows an old treasure map she found in a 19th century book. Supposedly Union soldiers intercepted a shipment of gold headed for General Robert E. Lee in 1863. They decided to hide part of that gold to recover after the end of the war. As she searches, following that map, she is suddenly conscious of a strange odor and is driven mad by hallucinations. She wakes up much later when a dog finds her lying unconscious in a wooded area in newly fallen snow. The local sheriff, following his dog, saves her.

The dog is one of my favorite characters in this book. A little poodle named Brewster, when he gets excited, he pees all over whoever is trying to calm him down. He provides laughs in times of worry.

Ruth has amnesia but as soon as she is identified, Savich and Sherlock hurry to her side and they join the search to discover who drugged her and took her from the cave. Brewster of course gets really excited with all these people in the house.

Savich and Sherlock had been investigating a pair of criminals, two of the worst people on the planet who are apparently intent on killing Savich and maybe Sherlock too. As they follow both cases, the thrills and chills are many, but there is also the growing relationship between Ruth and the sheriff and his two teenage sons. He is a widower and lonely, funny how that works out.

Excellent thriller with a touch of romance, and great characters.

Highly recommended
Source: book trade with friend ( )