Customer Reviews

Body Double (Silhouette Bombshell)

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

 

 

In this first of Vicki Hinze's WAR GAMES series, she has achieved such a grabber that it's difficult to wait for the next three books to come out. From tbe first sentence--"They were going to kill her."--BODY DOUBLE begins with a heart-stopping torture scene in the Middle East that immediately reveals Amanda West's courage, passionate belief in her country, survival spirit and greatest fear, as her terrorist captors bury her alive in a tomb. When she awakens and escapes from the tomb, she discovers she's close to her home in the U.S., and three months of her life have disappeared while someone kept her alive on intravenous while buried underground. How could she be buried in the Middle East and awaken in the U.S.? Against the backdrop of current hostage taking in Iraq, this opening scene brings to life the terrible risks and terror military, diplomat, aid workers and civilians endure to fight the war on terrorism in the Middle East and Afghanistan. That Amanda survives her ordeal is only by the grace of her captor, who, she learns, intends to use her in his diabolical plot to insert doubles of field agents working in all sectors of the U.S. intelligence community. How can she stop this monster and save her country from economic ruin? That's the question that drives each word and keeps you glued to every page until the very end when you realize the war of mind games and ultimate control is not over--like an octopus, this evil network called GRID can regrow new tentacles and reproduce successive leaders willing to martyr themselves to destroy the U.S.

Woven into the plot is Amanda's inner issues of distrust. Every day she overcomes memories of her father's past abuse with determined willpower not to become a victim to anyone again. But a victim she becomes, when she finally opens her heart to one man who turns out to be an implanted double and not the fellow agent she believes he is. Can she ever trust again? It's a complex thriller of intrigue, betrayal and romance that Vicki weaves, making her a queen of the new subgenre devoted to the Amazon heroine faced with the demands made on today's women, whether in the military or elsewhere. They must be physically fit, brainy, self-sufficient and multi-talented in addition to being nurturing, compassionate, vulnerable women. A tough task that modern women meet with devoted passion every day and without accolades. I highly recommend this book. It's one of Vicki Hinze's most engaging reads, and for that reason I will not give away the plot in this review.

Do you cheer for the strong woman in television, movies, books and real life? Do you have to make yourself breathe during the chase scenes in a suspense movie? Do you dream of foiling every bad guy you've ever met, and those you haven't come in contact with yet? If you've answered yes to these questions, you can find all that and more in Vicki Hinze's books. Her Body Double is so exciting you should have your doctor give your heart a medical pass before you read it.

Amanda West isn't fazed by the torture she's received at the hands of Thomas Kunz' henchmen. That was because she'd been tortured by the best as a child: her own father. Torture didn't work so Kunz believes that he can conquer Amanda by burying her alive in a brick and mortar tomb. He's underestimated Amanda.

Amanda is a Special Forces captain who learns, following her escape from the tomb, that she's been captured and missing for three months. Her capture jeopardizes her career. But there have been other missing persons, and it's ultimately up to Amanda to get to the bottom of the kidnappings in order to protect the Unites States.

Amanda's investigation leads her to another agent in search of the same answers. They learn that the unthinkable has happened. Someone is creating doubles of government agents, and the only man Amanda has ever trusted, might not be who she thought he was. And her survival might be at stake.

Body Double is suspense to the max! I can't wait to read the next Vicki Hinze book. I've got a whole new genre to enjoy now. I have an enormous amount of respect for Hinze's ability to conjure up a scintillating read.

I was really impressed with this book. Hinze's Bombshells turn out to be the most action packed Bombshells!

It takes a lot of imagination and skill to put all that together, so I disagree with the last review. Her descriptions of planes, choppers, explosives, and guns are all right on the mark. If the storyline tests your imagination in some instances, keep going with it and the creative story will come together, pull you in, and present it's own logic. I also thought her main characters were well written.

All in all, I loved it. It's gritty, gripping, action-packed, suspenseful, and thrilling.

I'm all for suspending disbelief in a light read, but BODY DOUBLE is barely able to stick to its own rules...it reads like a first-draft manuscript that didn't even get a once-through, with a rather predictable "ironic twist" edited in to make even less sense.

The premise is interesting enough; Amanda West is a Secret Agent who, months after a horrible torture session, wakes up inside a coffin with marks from an IV in her arm. It's up to her to find out what exactly happened - and prove that she hasn't compromised national security - before she loses her job, which appears to be the one thing that matters to her. Helping her is Captain Mark Cross, who's also undergone the same experience.

The pair have some chemistry and the opening scenes read well, but the book gets more and more implausible as it goes. Most notably, given the assumption that *anyone* could be a double, the heroine is remarkably cavalier with who she trusts. Fortunately for her, most doubles are clearly identified; the ones that aren't are not-so-cleverly signposted for the reader, and there aren't that many of them.

It's a world where high security facilities have cameras and guards everywhere except where they don't, the bad guys will happily switch between terrorizing a and woman as re-creating her entire living space, right down to the clothes in her dresser so that they can "observe her acting naturally" (Which happens so often in post-beating captivity). Even the relationship between the villian and the doubles, once explained, is so needlessly complicated that one can easily think of at least three alternate solutions that'd work just as well for the villian.

And that's the problem. Hinze creates a situation where it's only logical to second-guess everything, and then expects readers to accept some rather shaky premises without question. Her love story is at times clunky but does have a few significant bright spots, and her lead is particularly likeable and easy to root for, but overall, when I realized that all the irrational things I was reading *weren't* actually a setup for a big underlying reveal, finishing the book became a chore.

Fortunatlely for me, it is also of note that the book ends rather abruptly. There is a clear setup for a sequel; one I will probably skip.