“People like you don’t retire. They die.”—72 Hours
Shannon Stacey’s 72 Hours from Samhain Publishing, LTD was a very quick read and a good one at that. The story is action packed and the pace never really slows down. I was sucked in from the start. We have secret babies, secret identities–two of my least favorite themes but the author made it work.
Alex Rossi leads a double life in order to entice a killer out of his hiding place. Alex has waited years to get revenge for his mother’s murder so he pretends to be Sean Devlin, head of the Devlin Group. A group of secret operatives set out to save the world from the bad guys.
Meanwhile, Grace Nolan has retired from fieldwork, opting to be a stay at home mom to her son, Danny, but her past comes back to haunt her and threaten her child. Instincts from the job just don’t go away. Thus, Danny is kidnapped and held for leverage in order to bring Alex Rossi in within 72 hours. Unfortunately, Alex and Grace share a history riddled with secrets, misunderstandings and past hurts. Eventually, both come together for what matters most and are willing to sacrifice all it takes to get a murderer: dead or alive.
If you enjoy action packed stories then this is the novel for you. It’s a quick read and a rather short one, too. I had fun reading it. The story is not original as we have a secret baby theme here but the author makes it fresh and original. The dialogue is snappy. The heroine is pretty strong, she can take care of herself. Characterization was pretty decent but if you don’t care for action scenes — maybe you should think twice.
There was one thread that was not clear to me and that dealt with Alex Rossi/Sean Devlin’s relationship to Grace Nolan. I thought they were friends but the author delves more into this thread as a means to keep the two apart because of Alex’s duplicity. I didn’t realize that they’d been that close to matter much. Grace even mentions that Sean was her best friend. All that was prologue, obviously. Also, much of what Grace told Sean/Alex should have clued him in that he had a son but the pictures she sent Sean Devlin aka Alex Rossi were not clear shots of him to determine otherwise. Just a mother protecting her son, I guess. And Danny’s acceptance of things after the take down of the bad guys was a little too pat but this is fiction after all.
72 Hours gets a strong recommend from me. I enjoyed this title very much. B+
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank YOU. I feel SO much better. I remember going back through and reading it again to make sure. Glad to hear you enjoyed this one, too, Karen!
Hey, I read this yesterday and loved it too! I had the exact same problem with the Alex/Sean revelation, I didn’t get the impression early on that they’d been especially close.
Look forward to that sequel! This was a fun read. I really enjoyed it.
Thank you, Keishon! I’m so glad you mostly liked it very much, and thank you for taking the time to review it.