Customer Reviews

Flashpoint (Troubleshooters, Book 7)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Suzanne Brockmann is at the top of my list of favorite romance authors. She ousted Linda Howard from the spot and that's saying a lot. Once I discovered Suzanne as an author, I found and devoured everything she wrote. She is a master of the romantic suspense genre because she always managed the perfect combination of action and romance. In an apparent effort to appeal to a broader audience, Suzanne has cut out half of what made her a favorite of mine - the romance - in her latest outing, "Flashpoint."

Intimate encounters between characters are glossed over, alluded to or, in some cases, skipped entirely. Is it wrong to want details? I certainly don't think so. It's hard to describe, but the love scenes in "Flashpoint" feel like they've been edited nearly to the point of deletion. Having read all of her other books, I know Brockman knows how to write a steamy love scene. So why did she hold back in "Flashpoint?"

I don't know if Flashpoint is a deliberate attempt to move away from being labeled a romance novelist in favor of becoming a suspense author, but what I do know is Brockmann messed with her winning formula and the result is a generic thriller that borders on bland.

I rushed out to buy this book on the day it was released. I won't make the same mistake with her next release. I'll get it from the library before I shell out money.

7th book in the SEAL Team 16 series.

Hmm...well, what comes to mind to say first about this book is that it was good, if taken simply as a book on it's own, but if you take it as part of a series where 6 books came before it, it was lacking.

Flashpoint begins a new phase in the SEALs series, a serious sharp left hand turn from the previous books. After the events that happened in books 5 & 6, several SEALs and FBI Agents left there jobs - some willingly, some not - and formed a security consultation firm, Troubleshooters Inc (TI). So in this book, instead of being focused on SEAL activity, you have a mission being done by TI. Because of all this, you have not only a new book premise, but also an influx of new characters. All of the main characters in the book were completely new.

The main focus is on Jimmy Nash, a former "Agency" operative who is working for TI now. Then there Tess Bailey, a former "Agency" support staffer who joins TI because she wants to do field work. She and Jimmy had a one night stand 2 months before the book started. Those two, along with a few other agents, have been given an assignment to go to Kazbekistant (fictional country) to retrieve the laptop of an al-Qaeda associate who was killed in a recent earthquake. Once there, they meet Sophia, an American in hiding and in big trouble.

As I said, the book on it's own isn't too bad. The plot was somewhat interesting, and the characters weren't too bad. Tess and Jimmy's romance was fairly decent. On just an overall level, the book kept me reading, but it didn't necessarily have me enthralled.

The problem, though, is that it IS part of a series and Brockmann almost completely disregards everything she set up and did in the previous 6 books. Well, to a certain degree. The idea for TI was born at the end of book 6, so tha was used, but that was about it. She didn't follow the format she'd always used, she didn't utilize all the wonderful characters she'd built up, nothing. It barely felt like the book was connected at all. Tom Paoletti (book 1) has a short appearance at the beginning and the end, because he runs TI, Cosmo Richter, a SEAL has a cameo, and Sam and Alyssa are mentioned once, but that's it. She doesn't even tell us anything about Troubleshooters, only the barest of details. Considering the setup of the book, a more detailed description would have been nice. I missed the historical flashback scenes in this one too.

Overall, the book was a bit of a disappointment. Brockmann should have stuck to the formula that made the other 6 books work.

Rating: 3 / 5

I am a huge fan of Brockmann's, but oh my goodness, I don't think she wrote this installment of the NavySeals. I liked the characters, but their danger and action scenes fell flat for me because of thier behavior and dialog I either wanted to laugh or encourage the terrorists to take them out for violation of good character exchange! I will still read Brockmann because there isn't anyone out there who writes like she does or makes you feel what the characters feel like she does....BUT, I just might have to wait for the next one to hit paperback instead of killing myself to get to the bookstore on the first day of release.

I love Suzanne Brockmann! There is no other author that can compell me to read until the ugly hours of the night. This book has been one of my favorites and one of the books I return to again and again.
It may be slightly disconcerting to some Brockmann fans because it introduces all new characters with only a small overlap of familiar "friends". Once I got over that, I loved it. Once I finished it the first time, I re-read it within the month.
Decker and Nash worked for the "agency" until they discovered just how expendable their superiors believed them to be. They left the same night, but not before Nash free falls into a hot, passionate and emotionally frightening night with fresh faced, wholesome, Tess Bailey. Next day, both agents are gone.
Months later, Tess quits her job after realizing she will always be turned down for promotion because she is a woman, and too good at her technogeek computer brilliance. Same day, she is on a plane to meet Tom Paoletti, head of the Troubleshooters, Inc. She walks into an interview and straight into Decker.... and Nash. Rapidly, they find themselves heading to K-stan posing as relief workers after a devastating earthquake. Jimmy Nash is melting down from the inside out. He ran away from Tess because he found he cared and that messed him up. Now he can't run. He has to stay and pretend to be her husband and hope he can keep his hands to himself.
This book is brilliant in dialogue. Her wit is ever present. The description of where they are and what they are doing is so vivid, I feel like I watched it in a movie.
Don't let this experience pass you buy. You will put the book down, half in love with the idea of Jimmy Nash.

One of my favorite features of Suzanne Brockmann's books is that she usually introduces her heroes or heroines as secondary characters in her previous novel. (what a sentence, but you get what I mean?)

So here, she goes totally off the board with three characters we've never met before, have no fuzzy feelings for, and have no sense of depth for.

Yeah, the love scenes are nearly PG-13 -- a most unwelcome change from her previous novels. But the worst part is that the reader just doesn't care about Jimmy and Tess.

Ok, all that said, I can't wait for Cosmo's story. I still adore Suzanne's books, and hope that she is able to fight off the pod person who has taken over her body.

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Suzanne Brockmann is my favorite author. However, after waiting months upon months for this book to come out I was so disapointed. Brockmann can drag a reader into a story better than any writer I know but this quality is sadly lacking in her newest realese.

When I first found out that Brockmann was going to introduce a whole new set of charcters I was excited. These guys (although not Navy SEALs) are supposed to be the best of the best of the best. Am I the only one who wondered where these people's focus was? On a mission in nightmare of a country, all the characters could think about was who was "getting with" whom. Where was the gut wrenching plot? Where was the suspense that has made Brockmann famous. My only hope is that her next book (Cosmo's) will do credit to her amazing talent

Why do good authors mess with perfection? Suzanne Brockmann has fallen off my "must have immediately" list. The love scenes in this book were flat and unemotional. I was very disappointed. I hope this book is not a portent of things to come. Other authors that have gone the same way over the years are Tami Hoag, Julie Garwood, Linda Howard and Elizabeth Lowell. Except for Garwood they were all previously "series romance" authors. Their original works all had detailed sex scenes without being pornographic and when they jumped to mainstream publishing it continued. But, the jump from paperback to hardcover seems to come with a price; less sex between the hero and heroine. I am an adult and I like love, sex and romance. I love books that can introduce a good suspense storyline with romantic and lusty love. Why does the writing style that made these authors my "Keepers" change so drastically with a jump to hardcover?

I am a #1 Suz Brockmann fan who's read all her books. The writing in Flashpoint is technically very good. HOWEVER, as other reviewers have mentioned, it is very hard to be "pulled" into any of these characters. The two main characters are a pushover (Tess) and a foul-mouthed emotional basket case (Nash). It is very difficult to see why Tess would fall in love with Nash. Maybe Suz is trying to create more complicated characters with more demons. However, I think she went too far with Nash. Decker is really the hero of the story who pulls at your heart, yet has only an unresolved subplot. Additionally, the sequence of events (and flashbacks) she uses to tell the story seem ineffective. Who edited this?? I would have definitely made the story more sequential. Doing so may have increased our understanding and empathy of these characters, especially the Nash and Tess relationship. (Suz, I'll volunteer to edit your next book:)) All in all, it's worth a read but is not a keeper. Suz, I'll look forward to your next book with baited breath! Maybe Decker/Sophia??

DID SUZANNE BROCKMANN REALLY WRITE THIS BOOK?! I have my doubts. This book had so much potential, but when I finished it I felt as though I hadn't even read it. I'm upset that I paid hardback price for it and I am sad because I feel very disloyal to one of my favorite authors. The story's two main characters were too seriously undeveloped for this to be a romance and the action was too non-existent for this to be an action or spy thriller. For example, in the middle of an action scene in which two of the characters are being chased by squads of armed soldiers, through the stairwell of a condemned hotel that is about to collapse, during an earthquake aftershock, and suddenly --- we have a dry, 5 paragraph explanation as to why they are in the wrong stairwell. What?! Dearly loved characters from previous books who appeared in the story may as well have not even appeared because there presence contributed nothing at all. I and all of Ms. Brockmann's fans know that she writes better than this and I think Ballantine seriously needs to consider a different Editor next time.

The Troubleshooters - an elite group made up of former military, intelligence, and police personnel are sent into Kazbekistan to retrieve a briefcase belonging to an al-Qaeda leader killed in a deadly quake. Along for the ride are CIA partners Larry Decker and Jimmy Nash, as well as computer specialist Tess Bailey. Tess and Jimmy shared a night of passion on the last op and Jimmy disappeared soon after. Their number one priority is to retrieve the case; unfortunately, they spend far too much time trying to live down their one night stand. Decker manages to happen upon the mysterious Sophia who was forced into marriage to K-stan warlord Padsha Bashir after he murdered her husband. Deck and Soph get off to a rocky start and when he realizes his error in judgment, he doubles his efforts to find her, but she has quite a price on her head, and plenty of others are looking for her too.

Easily one of the weakest of Brockmann's SEAL 16/Troubleshooter series, the story gets bogged down by the constant romantic discussions and too stupid to live moments. With people like this looking out for our interests, no wonder the Middle East is a mess. Missing (except for a brief appearance near the end) are the SEALs. The diluted romance between Jimmy and Tess is lukewarm at best, and the Sophia/Deck romance barely gets off the ground. The final mission is so anti-climatic, it's hard to reconcile that this is the same writer who brought us great stories like "Over the Edge" and "Hot Target" in the same series. This barely held my interest; I think I started this novel about six times before finally committing to finishing it.