Customer Reviews

Mountain Investigation (Harlequin Intrigue)

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This book review will have some spoilers. Some years ago Mariah Shore was married to Lee Chisholm, who as Lee Mawadi, was a secret terrorist who committed several bombings one of which was to kill Mariah.

Mariah knew nothing of the bombings or of her husband's double life, but she was tarred with Lee's guilt, even though she divorced and testified against him. Afterwards, Mariah had retreated to an isolated mountain cabin.

Nobody held Mariah more responsible than FBI special agent Michael Grayson who lost loved ones in one of the bombings. Even suspension for unprofessional behavior doesn't stop him from stalking her and looking for some hint of guilt.

Unfortunately for Mariah, her husband, his boss al-Jihad and another had recently escaped from prison, and in a moment of carelessness Mariah is captured by her ex-husband, and is tortured, off stage. Fortunately for Mariah, Grayson is still stalking her, so when she makes a break for it, Grayson is skulking out in her woods to aid her escape.

All well and good, but the problems here are many. The first is that this book is immensely top heavy with the backstory from a previous novel (?), and not a chapter goes by where we don't have this previous story rubbed in our noses. The second is the attraction of the two leads, Grayson has stalked Mariah, made her life hell, caused her father's heart-attack, and has continuously prosecuted her, so of course she wants to jump his bones.

Then there is Grayson, for whom it is made very clear is one of the most unprofessional FBI agents in Uncle Sam's employ. He's a constant screw-up, so of course Mariah knows that he's the man to protect her. Mariah's husband is a mustache twirling evil cartoon, who doesn't even have enough depth to be two-dimensional.

Then there is the fact that there is no plot to speak of. For somebody supposedly as tough and as self-reliant as Mariah is supposed to be, she is constantly being kidnapped and rescued. So you would expect all of this frantic activity to actually accomplish something, but no, because "Mountain Investigation" quite literally has NO ENDING!!!

Yes, the book ends after ANOTHER rescue of Mariah after another Grayson screw-up blows-up, quite literarily, in his and Mariah's faces, and her evil ex-husband escapes, again literarily, down a rabbit hole, here though, the rabbit hole is a trap door.

The villains go one way, our heroes go another, and then the books ends, and stay tuned for the next installment. What a waste of my time.