Customer Reviews

Double Impact

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Double impact is a collection of two short stories by best selling author Tess Gerritsen and Debra Webb. Though Tess Gerritsen is a more acclaimed writer, Debra Webb's story was the one that I loved- a suspenseful mystery romance that had two great characters and a fast moving plot with lots of twists!

Tess Gerritsen's story (Never Say Die) is about Willy Maitland who goes to Vietnam to find the truth about her father who disappeared years ago. Once there, she finds alot of secrets and a solider (Guy) who has his own hidden motives for helping her.

Debra Webb's story, No Way Back, is about nurse Ami Donovan who doesn't remember her past. All she knows is that she has a young son and is a nurse. She finds out that she used to be a CIA agent and set up a terrorist to kill her father. Now, two years later, her former lover finds her and kidnaps her- convinced she has betrayed him and their love. While kidnapped, she falls back in love but needs to get out of his hands and back to her son.

Stumbled across this book at my local library. Haven't read anything by either author until now, but I know I'll read more. Of the two, Debra Webb's No Way Back was my favorite. I really liked the story in that one, and liked how the author developed the story and the characters well enough that you felt empathy for them and were interested in finding out just who Amira/Ami really is. (Is she really a CIA agent? What caused her amnesia, and why? Is Michal as evil as he seems on the surface?) I also like how Webb avoids the cliched writing that trips up a lot of writers in this genre. For instance, she has Michal react to Ami flinching away from him in one scene in the book by writing, "A blade of hurt skewered him as if he'd been run through with a sword." Which is leaps better from a similar scenario in another book I read that was written along the lines of, "His heart ripped from his body at her rejection. He didn't know if he could bear the pain." Ick. That kind of writing doesn't do it for me; has me instead reaching for a bottle of PeptoBismol to calm my heaving stomach. Gerritsen's story was good too, and she has this one line that I really loved, "With his arms crossed and his knobby knees jutting out at them, he looked like a disagreeable pile of bones." Wonderful! There are other well-written gems like that in her story, which kept me reading. I'll definitely be looking forward to reading other books from both authors.

Love Tess Gerritsen. This was my first read for Debra Webb and I could not put No Way Back down. Loved it so much I am going to read it again.

Her writing just keeps getiing better with each book. I have read all books and eagerly await the next. The plots and characters are alive and never dull.

Double impact is a collection of two short stories by best selling author Tess Gerritsen and Debra Webb. Though Tess Gerritsen is a more acclaimed writer, Debra Webb's story was the one that I loved- a suspenseful mystery romance that had two great characters and a fast moving plot with lots of twists!

Tess Gerritsen's story (Never Say Die) is about Willy Maitland who goes to Vietnam to find the truth about her father who disappeared years ago. Once there, she finds alot of secrets and a solider (Guy) who has his own hidden motives for helping her.

Debra Webb's story, No Way Back, is about nurse Ami Donovan who doesn't remember her past. All she knows is that she has a young son and is a nurse. She finds out that she used to be a CIA agent and set up a terrorist to kill her father. Now, two years later, her former lover finds her and kidnaps her- convinced she has betrayed him and their love. While kidnapped, she falls back in love but needs to get out of his hands and back to her son.