Tracy's Reviews > Into the Storm

2.5 stars

Into the Storm, the 10th installment of the Troubleshooters series, seems to have taken a turn from the prior books. What I've always liked about Brockmanns's writing is her ability to weave together different storylines in a seamless fashion, mixing suspense and romance wonderfully. In this case, I felt like the story was a bit of a patchwork quilt - different stories put together, but not necessarily integrated as fluidly as I'd like. There were two areas that seemed most disconnected:

First, the psycho-killer storyline was a bit of a stretch for me. It didn't really integrate much into the story until the later half, which in turn translated into many of the suspense elements being pushed to the end. In addition, I really liked seeing the SEALs square off against terrorists or fanatic organizations. Having the villain be a loon with a penchant for torture was certainly disturbing, but didn't have the same level of drama, suspense and intrigue.

Second, Tracy, the Troubleshooters secretary, played a major role in the story. In fact, I wonder whether she had more airtime than our heroine Lindsay. I kept wondering why she was in so many scenes. That her character was overly needed, insecure and high maintenance (not my favorite type of woman) made my question her significance to the story that much more.

The ray of sunshine for me in this book was the mini-novella at the end featuring Alyssa, Sam and Jules, who continue to be my three favorite characters in the series. Also, Dave Malkoff, with his undying support for Sophia, is quickly moving up the charts.