No Easy Target

February 13, 2017
Margaret Douglas, who’s been a supporting player in bestseller Johansen’s Eve Duncan series (Silencing Eve, etc.), takes center stage in this exciting standalone. As a volunteer at the San Diego Zoo in California, Margaret has been making good use of her psychic ability to communicate with animals such as Zaran, a stubborn tigress who refuses to accept her cub. Late one night, just as she shuts Zaran’s cage, Margaret feels a gun in her back. John Lassiter, a former CIA operative, is prepared to use force to ensure that she joins him on a mission to rescue his mentor, CIA agent Sean Patrick. Patrick has been captured by Stan Nicos, a sadistic criminal who once held Margaret captive and killed her friend Rosa. Lassiter intends to let Nicos, who covets Margaret’s skills as an animal communicator, think that he’s willing to trade her for Patrick while actually keeping her safe. Margaret, who doesn’t trust Lassiter at first, has plans of her own. Johansen keeps the suspense high as Lassiter and Margaret work together to ensure Patrick’s survival. Agent: Andrea Cirillo, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

February 15, 2017
Johansen dumps a host of bad guys on the trail of an animal psychic in her latest action-packed damsel-in-distress outing.Margaret Douglas mentally communicates with animals, a trait that comes in very handy while helping a tiger accept the cub she has rejected. But a phone call from her friend Dr. Devon Brady from the Caribbean island where Margaret used to work sends her frantically packing her bags and going on the run--again. Margaret, who ran away from home at age 8 to live in the woods, later escaped from Vadaz Island, the home of the evil Stan Nicos, a criminal who enjoys having sex with young girls as well as torturing them. Margaret vowed never to return to Vadaz Island, and she's been hiding out from Nicos, trying to keep her location secret, but Devon tells her that a man named John Lassiter and his companion, Neal Cambry, are on her trail. It turns out Lassiter is planning to trade her to Nicos in return for something Nicos has of his. Like most of Johansen's novels, this one features a strong, capable woman. Margaret initially fights Lassiter and Cambry. But also as in most of Johansen's novels, while it may feel like the book is moving fast, what the characters do most is talk--about what they've done, what they're doing, and what they're going to do. There is so much conversation between Lassiter and Margaret that many of the chapters read like plays. Johansen (Night Watch, 2016, etc.) has perfected a formula her readers adore by taking a beautiful woman with extraordinary abilities, putting her in danger, and tossing in a gorgeous, smitten man, which is certainly the case here. And while the sexual tension between Margaret and Lassiter may make a few hearts flutter, the best character in the book by far is a beautiful, pregnant dog. The author's told this story many times before, but it never gets old to her many devotees.

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February 1, 2017
Having escaped the clutches of demonic drug lord Stan Nicos, animal whisperer Margaret Douglas has worked hard to protect her identity and stay under the radar, so when the handsome and tenacious CIA operative Lassiter tracks her down in San Diego, Margaret tries to go to ground once more. Lassiter, however, needs Margaret as a bargaining chip in his own battle with Nicos, who is holding one of Lassiter's dearest friends in a torture camp deep in the Colombian jungle. While Margaret has learned to trust no one, her ultraempathic nature can't help being moved by Lassiter's genuine concern for his friend, and his romantic feelings for her. From the high seas to the deepest rain forest, Margaret and Lassiter form a reluctant but intrepid team as they confront a mutual enemy. An important but secondary character in Johansen's (Night and Day, 2016) popular Eve Duncan series, Margaret comes into her own in this engrossing thriller. Loyal Johansen fans will welcome yet another strong female hero to her prolific body of work.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2016

Fan favorite Margaret Douglas, who's shown her way with animals in previous Johansen titles, now gets a book of her own. Threatened by an enemy from her past, Margaret goes on the run, finally realizing that to survive she must become not the hunted but the hunter. With a one-day laydown on April 25.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.