Customer Reviews

Fatal Error

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3 star:		(1)
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Susan Maddox is madder than hell. A normal reaction considering her husband of six years, Brian, has run off with the local banker's wife, a fortune in false loans, and stolen enough from the family business to ruin it. On top of that, the gossip surrounding the sordid mess in her small West Texas hometown has her high school teaching job on the line. Eight months after her soon-to-be ex's betrayal, the job's the only thing keeping her and her ailing mother from destitution. The career loss would also mean the end of the ecology club she's organized, her pet project, which has proved to make a difference in the lives of several hard line kids. The mortgage on her home is already being called. How much more does she have to lose?

Even knowing it's foolish, the only person she can look to for help is her brother-in-law, Luke Maddox.

Luke is madder than hell, too. He's lived in the shadow of his football hero brother for a lifetime, never quite measuring up in his socially prideful mother's eyes. After years of playing second fiddle in the family, while his brother side-stepped responsibility for his actions with good `ole boy charm, Luke has to come home to clean up Brian's biggest mess. Even now, with the avalanche of proof, his mother will not accept that Brian has screwed up big time.

Neither Luke nor Susan will admit to the feelings each has buried from that one fateful night, back in high school, when passion reigned and a bond was forged that connects them as much more than in-laws.

Although Luke thinks Susan's been put in an unfair situation, he's got his hands full closing down the family car dealership his deceased father worked all his life to build. But when danger threatens, Luke can't let Susan face it alone.

While the Texas desert, hot and barren as hell by day and colder than sin at night, teems with hidden life, it, too, can bury a multitude of secrets. Can Susan and Luke find the answers they need to solve the mystery surrounding Brian's disappearance and free their frozen hearts?

With plot twists aplenty, FATAL ERROR is an unrivaled whodunit. And the greatest threat to our heroine? You'll need to read the book to figure it out. An interesting little plot twist keeps the reader turning pages until the satisfying end of this novel.

Choose your villain and hang on for the ride. It's a great one.

Fatal error has it all, and then some!

Susan Maddox's husband has disappeared with another woman and a whole lot of money. She's losing her house, about to lose her job...but she'd have sworn she wasn't losing her mind until she found herself taking up with her husband's brother, Luke Maddox. Once upon a time, she and Luke had been a thing, but that was long ago. Now, she only wanted his computer expertise...at least that's what she tells herself. Unfortunately, her heart's not listening.

Colleen Thompson's Fatal Error is a page-turning story full of twists and turns...and a whole lot of love.

Colleen Thompson is one of the most talented writers I've ever had the pleasure of reading. FATAL ERROR is fast-paced, intelligently plotted, filled with characters you can love and hate, loaded with suspense and romantic tension, rich in imagery and detail, and beautifully written. I predict Ms. Thompson will be a star in this genre. And just wait until you read her next romantic suspense, FADE THE HEAT. If anything, it's even better than FATAL ERROR (which was pretty doggone hard to do). VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Though her husband Brian ran off with the banker's wife Jessica Beecher, everyone in the small southwest Texas community blames schoolteacher Susan Maddox while providing casseroles and sympathy for the other cuckolded person, Hal. Some feel she killed her spouse although the runaways were sighted in New Mexico. Even his mother spreads rumors that Susan is at fault for her favorite son vanishing.

Being fired from her teaching job and thinking the sheriff is an idiot, Susan asks the enemy for help. She wants Brian's brother, Luke to break into a hard drive that her husband used to see if there is any evidence on it to exonerate her. Luke and Susan were attracted to one another back in high school, but her mother interfered and she ended up married to his sibling, whom she remained faithful to although she never forgot her first love. As someone tries to kill her to stop her from looking into the disappearances, Luke steps in to keep the woman he loves safe.

This is an exciting romantic suspense with an intriguing twist that will surprise readers although it is obvious Colleen Thompson does a terrific job of hiding the truth. The lead couple is a fine pairing as she seeks to clear her name while he has no choice but to help her. Adding depth is the powerful look at small town living where innuendos and rumors can ruin a successful career as happened to Susan, teacher of the year last year and unemployed this year though no proof exists that she did any wrong. FATAL ERROR is a fine tale that sub-genre fans will take pleasure in reading.

Harriet Klausner

After suffering a miscarriage, Susan Maddox finds herself hated by residents of her small west Texas town when her golden-boy husband disappears without a trace with the banker's wife and a cache of ill-gotten gains. Many suspect that Susan has murdered the duplicitous duo. Now without a child, a husband, unable to make her mortgage, and her job as a high school teacher in jeopardy, she discovers a hard drive that her husband left behind. With trepidation, she enlists the help of his ne'er-do-well brother Luke (who also happens to be her former high school beau) to pull the data from the disk in hopes that it will clear her of any wrongdoing. She doesn't count on old feelings resurfacing for them both.

Thompson's story is a fast-paced thriller with few surprises, but a charismatic couple and interesting subplots (infidelity, identity theft, obsession) make up for a compelling story (thankfully with no paranormal devices!)

How impressed I was with this author's voice....intelligently written with the perfect blend of romance, suspense, mystery, thrills, and lots of twists to keep me on the edge of my seat! This book didn't give any clues away to allow us readers to determine the true villain(s)....quite a feat, in my humble opinion....
A small west Texan town setting....a worried, yet determined, heroine, Susan Maddox, who is fighting for her teaching job which was going to be terminated.....who was trying desperately to clear her name from being a suspect in her husband Brian's disappearance eight months before, when he ran off with the banker's wife...and his family's car dealership funds...
An ex-brother-in-law, Luke, a tech whiz, and the fellow who, back in highschool, took her virginity one night in the back of his caddy...A high-faluting, bitter ex-mother-in-law who is helping the fingers to be pointed in Susan's direction....an ailing mother who needs assurance and understanding...the local banker,husband of the woman who ran away with Brian, left to be the caretaker of their young son....the local old-fashioned sheriff....these are just a few of the complex characters whose lives are intertwined.....
A crashed hard drive from Brian's puter might just exonerate Susan.....IF Luke could break into it and obtain any information on it...
House intruders.....hang-up phone calls..... a sinister watcher...Susan has these, and more, to contend with.....while fighting her inner desires towards Luke!
Watching how this mystery enfolded, made me tune out all other distractions around me.....I couldn't put the book down until it was finished..many twists and turns had me thinking first "this person is involved" then later on thinking it was someone else.......This author is a truly talented lady, and one whose books I will now glom......I'm clammering for more already!

If you like strong and cheeky heroines, FATAL ERROR is for you. Susan Maddox won't let anyone take advantage of her--not even if it means risking danger at every turn. What set ERROR apart for me from other romantic suspense, was the wry and edgy humor of author Colleen Thompson. I found myself laughing out loud even as I was pulled along on a great mystery.

Hello,
I don't how I went about finding this author but she had me hooked from her book "head on". I then proceeded to buy her other books and I specially liked "The Salt maiden" and this one Fatal Error. In every one of them she builts the characters and the plot nicely and makes for a very convincing stoy. The romance falls in line with the plot so is very believable, and there is as much romance as suspense. No steaming erotic sex scenes, not that they are missed. All in all highly recommended and will not disapoint you.

The second Colleen Thompson book I've read, her first I think.

I hate to admit it, but I fell in love with Luke in Chapter one. Yep, I actually think it was page 5 and I couldn't stop reading. The magic between the two characters, their situation...brilliant. Fast paced, suspenseful read that I couldn't put down.

As always, Thompson provides a great balance of suspense and romance with characters you care about until the end. A recommended read for those who enjoy suspense!