Bait FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
Bestselling author Karen Robards cranks up the tension -- and the heat -- in this action-packed romantic thriller. When two women in the same city, each named Madeline Fitzgerald, are attacked on the same night, FBI agent Sam McCabe starts taking it personally. Since one intended victim survived -- resourceful young ad executive Maddie Fitzgerald -- McCabe needs her help to catch the killer, but Maddie has no intention of letting McCabe drag her further into the case. First, she has a small advertising agency to run and is about to land a major account, Brehmer's Pet Foods. Secondly, she knows why she's being stalked and she doesn't want to tell anyone, let alone the FBI. However, after a second, far more persuasive attack on her life, Maddie has no choice but to accept the protection of rugged Agent McCabe, as well as his scheme to use her as bait for the killer. It seems like a good plan until their mutual hostility turns to romance, and the distraction works to the killer's advantage. Robards pulls out all the plot stops, then throws a little comedy into the mix in the form of the Brehmer dog, Zelda, in this twisty thriller that will keep readers delightfully off kilter until the explosive ending. Ginger Curwen
FROM THE PUBLISHER
"It's a business trip that takes advertising agency owner Maddie Fitzgerald down to New Orleans, but it's hardly business as usual when a man breaks into her hotel room and tries to kill her. Barely escaping with her life, the sexy, stylish twenty-nine-year-old brunette soon finds herself face-to-face with FBI agent Sam McCabe. Unnerved by his questions - and his good looks - Maddie is told she's been targeted by an elusive killer whom McCabe has been tracking for weeks. Apparently, she's been mistaken for a woman of the same name who was also staying at the hotel that night. McCabe grills her, and then disappears. Shaken, Maddie finishes her business and returns home to St. Louis." Days later, she is attacked a second time, and McCabe convinces her that the only way she'll ever be safe again is if the killer is caught, and that the quickest way to nab him is to use her as bait. Maddie reluctantly agrees, and sparks fly and then ignite as McCabe shadows her. But their unexpected romance throws McCabe off his stride - and puts Maddie in the hands of a killer.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Veteran romance/crime bestseller Robards (Beachcomber; Whispers at Midnight) delivers another hold-your-breath drama, this time starring FBI agent Sam McCabe and advertising executive Maddie Fitzgerald. The sardonic hunk and the honey-eyed businesswoman are thrown together when Maddie becomes the latest target of a serial killer that Sam and his tubby assistant, E. P. Wynne, have been chasing for weeks, with no success. The body count already stands at six, but Maddie has neither the time nor the inclination to play bait for McCabe's booby trap to catch the killer. She needs the time to win the Brehmer's Dog Chow account (worth $10 million) lest her fledgling St. Louis ad agency go under before the end of the year. (And she has a secret past that she's determined not to share with anyone.) Soon enough, however, McCabe and his team are conducting a surveillance op from within her apartment, and that's when the suspense and romance really start to heat up. Though Robards's amorous prose is breathy as always ("His hand was warm and dry, big, long-fingered"; "Oh, god, he had dimples"), her pacing is excellent, and regular infusions of humor keep the story bouncing along between trysts and attacks. This one is sure to please fans. Agent, Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media. (July) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
It's bad enough that someone tries to kill her. But Maddie Fitzgerald is even more unnerved when an indisputably handsome FBI agent explains that she's (ahem) a dead ringer for the target of a much-sought-after killer and persuades her to serve as "bait." Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
AudioFile
Joyce Bean more than earns her pay in this romantic mystery as advertising executive Maddie Fitzgerald revisits an unhappy past, lives an uncertain present, and faces a deadly future. Along the way she encounters a gravelly voiced woman who can turn her firm around; an FBI Agent whose Southern drawl is a bit too syrupy; and a killer whose disguised voice intones threats over a cell phone. Bean voices Maddie's emotional pleas with authentic despair and lends a coarse, crass tone to the many thugs who attack her. As the attempts on Maddie's life escalate, so do the sparks flying between her and Agent McCabe—and that distraction may be just what the killer awaits. J.J.B. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
A babe and a bodyguard. Maddie Fitzgerald fears for her life . . . and so does the FBI agent assigned to investigate a series of murders-for-hire way down south. After two more victims are found with close-range bullet holes in their heads, Sam McCabe thinks Maddie might be next. The tough-talking fed has a great idea: How about they move in with her and wait for the killers to strike? But Maddie would rather not be bait, and handsome Sam and his oafish, fast-food-gulping sidekick make her nervous. You see, she has a secret. But, first, there's a subplot involving a surly Pekingese named Zelda, the spoiled star of a pet food ad campaign: Zelda also loves fast food! A mysterious bad guy pops up now and then as these cartoon characters do their stuff, and Maddie discovers that Sam is really very attractive ("His thigh between her legs was a revelation, a pleasure-giving machine of awesome proportions"). When not whiling away the hours in amorous dalliance, Sam figures out that mob goons went on a killing spree to protect their lucrative garbage-collection enterprises. Then tearful Maddie reveals that her dad was slaughtered in cold blood, and that she's really someone else. Will Sam still love her? Why not? On with the plot. Bang, bang!Lightweight suspense and trashy fun from the ever-popular Robards (Ghost Moon, 2000, etc.). Agency: Trident Media Group
Home
