SWITCHBACK – Catherine Anderson
Harlequin Intrigue #1587
ISBN: 978-0-373-69854-7
September 2015
Romantic Suspense

Seattle, Washington – Present Day

Private investigator Bud “Mac” Phearson is summoned by his good friend and mentor, businessman Keith Christiani, to protect Keith's widowed daughter-in-law and granddaughter. But before Mac can get to the job, Keith is felled by a stroke, and the granddaughter is kidnapped by the crime boss's henchmen. With Keith in intensive care at the hospital, Mac does intercept the daughter-in-law, Mallory, and attempts to whisk her away. However, someone soon is shooting bullets at them and they're running for their lives. The crime boss is insistent that he wants a mysterious package that Keith was supposed to deliver to them. In exchange, Mallory's daughter will be released.

Mallory is confused by what is going on around her, but her biggest concern right now is finding her daughter, Emily. She isn't sure she can trust Mac, but he appears to be a friend of Keith's. He also is insistent on protecting her, which she should be grateful since bullets are flying and bombs are going off wherever she turns. As the hours tick on, Mallory soon experiences something she hasn't since her husband died: attraction to another man, namely Mac. Will they let the mutual attraction get in the way of finding the mystery package and rescuing Emily?

SWITCHBACK by Catherine Anderson is actually a reprint of a book first published in 1990, so there are some details that will make a reader wonder. For example, the characters do not use cell phones, and phone booths existed back in 1990 (gasp!). But beyond things like that, readers won't miss the basic premise of SWITCHBACK: a suspenseful tale of a couple trying to rescue her daughter even as bad guys are in hot pursuit to kill them. It takes Mac and Mallory a little bit to figure out why someone wants to kill them even as the crime boss wants them to find and deliver a package to him. Turns out even the crime boss had his own men turning on him and they don't want Mac and Mallory to find the package, either, as it will incriminate them about their own bad deeds against their boss.

There is plenty of romance to go along with the suspenseful twists and turns in SWITCHBACK, and this action will keep readers glued in order to find out what happens next. Mallory starts out at first not trusting Mac, which is understandable as her world comes apart around her with Keith's stroke and her daughter's disappearance (which isn't ruled a kidnapping by the police since no one saw her taken). Mallory and Mac have been warned not to contact the police or they will kill Emily. Mac also has to use his street skills and contacts to try to figure how to work against the crime boss and his henchman. Being so close to one another 24/7, Mallory and Mac were bound to have feelings for each other. As everything falls into place in SWITCHBACK, both will do anything to protect and help the other.

An exciting and intriguing tale, SWITCHBACK is a tale I highly recommend.

Patti Fischer