Bait [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Karen Robards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 23, 2004

A New York Times Bestselling Author

A dazzling new thriller from "one of the most popular voices in women's fiction" (Newsweek).

Maddie Fitzgerald is in New Orleans on business when someone breaks into her hotel room and tries to kill her. FBI agent Sam McCabe tells her she's been mistaken for another woman - the target of a killer Sam's has been tracking for weeks. Shaken, Maddie returns home to St. Louis. But days later, she is attacked again. Now McCabe convinces Maddie that she'll never be safe again until the killer is caught . . . and the quickest way to do that is to use Maddie as bait.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Veteran romance/crime bestseller Robards (Beachcomber; Whispers at Midnight) delivers another hold-your-breath drama, this time starring FBI agent Sam McCabe and advertising executive Maddie Fitzgerald. The sardonic hunk and the honey-eyed businesswoman are thrown together when Maddie becomes the latest target of a serial killer that Sam and his tubby assistant, E. P. Wynne, have been chasing for weeks, with no success. The body count already stands at six, but Maddie has neither the time nor the inclination to play bait for McCabe's booby trap to catch the killer. She needs the time to win the Brehmer's Dog Chow account (worth $10 million) lest her fledgling St. Louis ad agency go under before the end of the year. (And she has a secret past that she's determined not to share with anyone.) Soon enough, however, McCabe and his team are conducting a surveillance op from within her apartment, and that's when the suspense and romance really start to heat up. Though Robards's amorous prose is breathy as always ("His hand was warm and dry, big, long-fingered"; "Oh, god, he had dimples"), her pacing is excellent, and regular infusions of humor keep the story bouncing along between trysts and attacks. This one is sure to please fans.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

FBI agent Sam McCabe is on the hunt for a killer who taunts him by calling him on his cell phone to give him clues that lead Sam and his team to the crime scene mere moments too late. A break in the case finally happens in New Orleans, when the killer strikes twice at the same hotel. He attacks two women with the name Maddie Fitzgerald but only kills one. The surviving Maddie wants only to be left alone. After a mysterious event in her life seven years ago, Maddie reinvented herself and doesn't want anyone delving into her past, especially the FBI. She now owns a struggling advertising agency, and she is after a dog-food account that will save her business. Sam knows that although she is unable to identify the assassin, he will come back to finish the job, so he tails Maddie back to St. Louis. There the killer tries again, and Sam must contend with the interference born of a mutual attraction between him and Maddie, and with Zelda, a psycho, junk-food-loving dog. A top-notch thriller filled with humorous characters and diverting subplots that leave the reader engrossed until the very end, this is yet another coup for Robards, and a fun summer read. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 656 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (August 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786266260
• ISBN-13: 978-0786266265
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,527,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Karen Robards is the bestselling author of twenty-seven novels. The winner of six Silver Pen awards for favorite romance novelist, as well as numerous other awards, she lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband, Doug, and their sons Peter, Christopher, and Jack. She says, "I read, I write, and I chase children. That's my life."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A VERY GOOD READ!!!!!, July 15, 2004

By 

Elaine C McTyer "avid reader" (Dawson, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bait (Hardcover)

Another winner from Karen Robards. If you are like me you can't wait for one of her books to come out. This one is GREAT.

Maddie Fitzgerald has had a hard life, but now things are looking up. She is in New Orleans to make a presentation that could take her fledgling advertizing agency into the big time. That night in her hotel room someone tries to kill her. Not only that, but he does kill another Madaline Fitzgerald in the same hotel. Which one did he mean to kill?

Sam McCade has been on this killer's trail for a month, the killer likes to tease him with hints before the kill. When Sam learns another Madaline has been attacked, but managed to escape he thinks he has his first break.

Maddie doesn't know if the hit was to be on her or not. But the FBI has already left her out to dry once, and she sure doesn't need them on her case again. IT has taken her 7 years to rebuild her life.

If it is the mob, she thinks she can hold some evidence over them and make them call off the hit. All the time she has Sam and his crew on her tail. Which is lucky because they save her life again and move in to protect her. She is not willing to tell them anything about her knowledge of the mob. She must protect herself.

When the killer strikes again she knows she will never be safe. She begins to think someone else is after her. But who? The attraction between her and Sam is potent. Eventually they confess to falling in love.

But the killer is not just after Maddie, somehow he seems to be connected to Sam, too.

The excitement never lets up. This is a fast paced story and so good you don't want it to end. There is a touch of humor, and you will feel alot of compassion for Maddie. The secondary characters are great, the ending surprising and exciting. Don't start to read it late at night, you may not get any sleep.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun read with lots of twists, surprises and comic relief!, March 20, 2005

By 

Valerie Matteson "Bookaholic" (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bait (Hardcover)

I have read a couple of Karen Robards books before and was anxious to read this one. I did not regret it!! She has an independent and feisty heroine in Madeline (Maddie) Fitzgerald, a determined and sexy hero in Sam McCabe and lots of fun secondary characters such as E.P. Wynee, Sam's partner; Cynthia Gardner, also on Sam's team and Jon and Susan. The dog, Zelda, is also a riot.

McCabe is an FBI special agent tracking a serial killer who calls him to leave clues. Maddie is the proud owner of a small advertising agency that is due to make a presentation the next morning at a dog food manufacturing company in New Orleans. Maddie is attacked and nearly killed in her hotel room. The killer also kills another Madeline Fitzgerald who is staying at the same hotel that same night/early morning. Maddie has secrets in her past that make her distrust law enforcement in general and the FBI in particular so lots of fireworks when McCabe & Wynne track her down to question her. Maddie & Jon make their presentation and win business with the dog food company by suggesting the owner's dog to appear in the ads and on a new logo.

Maddie & Jon fly back to St. Louis but Maddie is afraid her past is catching up with her. In the meantime, McCabe is convinced the killer will go after her again as she is the one who got away. Lots of close calls, comic relief from Zelda (the dog) and Wynne, romance and plots twists follow.

A delightful and thrilling read if you like mystery, thrills and some humor!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, December 19, 2004

By 

G. Greene - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bait (Hardcover)

Sometimes the plot devices in this novel require a suspension of disbelief, but by and large, this book is highly entertaining. The main characters are well drawn and fun to read about, and the secondary characters are just as real. Anytime a book can make me laugh out loud, the writer has done her job well, and the suspense holds until the very end.

Highly recommended.