Review: Troubleshooters Series #13: Into the Fire

Synopsis:
Vinh Murphy has been MIA ever since his wife, Angelina, was caught in the crossfire of a routine security assignment gone bad.  (See Book 8: Hot Target) Swamped by his grief, Murphy basically keeps himself in an alcohol-induced haze.

Hannah is a former cop, now deaf from an injury sustained on duty. She and Murphy have always been "just friends". And even though Hannah is the one who introduced Murphy to Angelina, she's always had feelings for him. Murphy seeks solace in Hannah's arms and is completely guilt ridden. In fact, Hannah's not sure she'll ever see him again. Finally, after several months, Murphy has decided to re-enter the land of the living and comes to Hannah. Things are easy with Hannah and Murphy finds his attraction to her growing. When it's announced that the leader of Freedom Network, a neo-nazi group that Murphy blames for Angelina's death, is dead and the FBI thinks he may have pulled the trigger, Murphy and Hannah set off to investigate because Murphy honestly cannot remember the last few months of his life. He thought about killing the leader many times. Did he actually do it?

Secondary Story:
Irving "Izzy" Zanella gets involved with Danny Gilman's younger sister, Eden. In fact, she's not even 18. Okay, it's the day before her birthday, but she's still much younger than Izzy. When Eden turns up pregnant six months later and is claiming Izzy to be the father, Gilman goes crazy as Izzy steps up and marries her. As Eden thinks Izzy is going wheels up, she discovers damaging footage of herself on the Internet. Izzy has been nothing my nice to Eden, but Eden leaves him before he can leave her.

And throughout all of this investigation and searching (oh yes, some of the group is taken) Nash and Tess are fighting. In fact, Nash is almost telling Tess to leave him. It's clear to Decker that he's hiding something, but Decker is so twisted inside about what happened between him and Sophia way back in Book 7: Flashpoint, that he hardly even speaks to Nash anymore.


My Response:
Wow. This story had some heartbreaking parts. First, Murphy is just a mess and you feel for this big, tough guy who just doesn't have an idea on how to heal after Angelina's death. The Troubleshooters are called in and there's a heart-pounding confrontation with members of Freedom Network as you wait to hear who's still standing. And I'm still not sure how I feel about it.


Overall Enjoyment: 4.5
Language: Yes
Explicit: Yes
Age Appropriate 21+