Navy SEAL William "Crash" Hawken first gets to spend time with Nell Burns when they are dealing with a horrible situation. Artist Daisy Owen has been like his mother since he was ten years old and Admiral Jake Robinson was her lover and almost like a father to him since then too. Nell is Daisy's personal assistant.

When Daisy is diagnosed with a brain tumor and given less than two months to live, both Crash and Nell are determined to make her last days wonderful despite the grief and loss they are feeling. And despite their unresolved feelings for each other. Billy doesn't do relationships. His job is both incredibly secret and incredibly dangerous. There is no way he wants to give his heart to someone he has to walk away from. Nell isn't afraid to love him though she prefers a more risk-free life.

After Daisy dies, just days after marrying Jake, Billy heads out of the country on special missions for Jake. And Nell begins a new job in Washington DC as the personal assistant for an actress who is trying to start up a theater. All of her letters to Billy go unanswered, but she hasn't moved on to another man.

One year after Daisy's death, Billy gets an assignment to take care of Jake and finds that he has been suckered into a mission that will wind up with Jake dead and Billy carrying all the blame. But Billy is determined to find out who set him up and who had Jake murdered. And even when it looks like all his military colleagues have turned against him, Nell refuses to believe that Billy could ever have killed Jake.

A couple of attempts on Nell's life send Nell and Billy off to try to find out who set him up and who killed Jake.

This was excellent romantic suspense. I loved the romance between Billy and Nell. It was also action-packed suspense with Billy and Nell on the run from a wide assortment of formidable enemies.

This story, written in 1998, is one of the reasons I became a fan of romantic suspense. It has held up quite well in the twenty-five years since it was first released. ( )

Typical SEALs book from Brockmann. While the Tall, Dark, & Dangerous books are definitely formula books, the characters kinda suck you in. ( )

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (later published as Hawken's Heart)
TDD #6
by Suzanne Brockmann

Billy "Crash" Hawken & Nell Burns

Crash, son-at-heart to Admiral Jake Robinson and his wife, Daisy, is implicated in the Admiral's death when they are ambushed at the family farm and ballistics reports "prove" that Crash committed the crime. All evidence points to him which makes even his SEAL teammates turn their backs on him. He has to find the truth on his own, starting with a file which was sent to Crash by the Admiral shortly before the ambush. He does receive help from one unlikely source, however. His friend, Nell Burns.

Some of the book takes place a year prior, setting up the friendship and romantic relationship between Crash and Nell. Crash proves to be helpful to Nell (emotionally and in practical matters) as she serves as Daisy's personal assistant, and is now given the tough task of helping Daisy prepare for the end of her life after she is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

Back in present day, Nell returns the favor by showing her complete trust and loyalty in Crash's innocence and helps him pull together the facts and people needed to prove it. ( )

Continuing with my (completely accidental, I swear) theme of reading books with main characters who share the name of family members.... ;-)

Neither of the titles really "do it" for me, but still the story of Billy "Crash" Hawkins is one of my favorites so far. It just barely contains other members of Team Ten's Alpha Squad, since about a quarter of the novel is a flashback to last Christmas, when Crash was on leave dealing with the life-ending illness of his stand-in mother figure and slightly more than half of what's left he's on the run for his life, accused of a murder. Still, though, I really liked the story of Billy and Nell...maybe partly because it was able to focus so solely on them. I just sped through this title, and not just because I still have two more to go in my library book and only five more days to go in my lending period. ;-) ( )

There are three main reasons to buy this book: 1) Suzanne Brockmann wrote it, so you know it's going to be good; 2) it IS a great story, and 3) both Ms. Brockmann and MIRA are very up-front about this book being a reissue of one of her previous releases.

Originally published in December 1998 as IT CAME UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR, the story has lost none of it's originality, sensuality, or action/adventure.

The story revolves around William "Crash" Hawken, a member of SEAL Team Twelve who gets framed for the murder of his Admiral boss and mentor, Jake Robinson. With his SEAL Team, superiors, and once friends convinced that he set the Admiral up for assassination, Crash has no one to turn to. Thankfully, someone comes to HIM.

Nell Burns spent a lot of time with Crash the previous year, at the home of Admiral Robinson and his live-in lover, Daisy Owens. The couple had been together for over twenty-years, and although they'd never had children of their own, they considered Crash to be their son. When Daisy is diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor, both Nell, her personal assistant, and Crash, her nephew, decided to make her last days as wonderful as possible.

That last year, Nell and Crash were lovers--for one night. But neither has ever forgotten the other, and now that Crash is literally fighting for his freedom, reputation, and very life, the two are on the run to find the real murderer of Admiral Robinson.

You won't go wrong with this book, or any other in Suzanne Brockmann's SEAL series. ( )