Atlanta, Georgia and other Places in the US, the Present

A combined US Army Special Forces / CIA mission in South America went bad in 2000. Four men went missing and were declared dead and five million in cash and diamonds disappeared. After barely surviving his supposedly self-inflicted wounds, the one man they found was court marshaled and spent the last seven years in prison for theft.

Jake Kelly knows his two fellow Special Forces men were killed -- he saw them when he came to after the ambush -- and assumes the bad guys took the others. He also knows he is innocent. Jake is out of prison on parole for just a few days when he receives an anonymous phone call telling him to go to a certain tavern in Atlanta, Georgia if he wants to find out what really happened in South America.

Atlanta Paramedic Kirke Palmer's day has already been a bad one when she and her partner are called to the scene of a hit and run in front of Manuel's Tavern. The victim won't let her help him until she swears to deliver an envelope and a message without involving the police. Now, Kirke is generally a by-the-book person, but she's also caring...and she promises not to turn over the envelope. She makes the decision to wait a while to see if the man survives.

Jake is being inconspicuous down the street from the tavern when he recognizes Del Cox, one of the agents who is supposed to be dead. Jake sees him being run down, and he also sees the other "dead" agent hurry toward Cox, only to slip away when the paramedics arrive. As he watches, Cox gives an envelope to the female medic. This is just the beginning.

Jake has always been a loner and was therefore gratefully surprised that a couple of friends believed in his innocence and helped him over the years. He's about to find out he has a new, very tenacious friend in Kirke, whose investigating skills were honed at a newspaper...before she was fired for stubbornly standing on her principles. Kirke is a remarkable example of triumph of character over a difficult background, something shown to us with affective brevity.

Wow! I haven't read such a consistently excellent romantic suspense in a long time. The characters come immediately to life as recognizable individuals, again with an economy of words that is enviable. The plot flows with clarity and logic and still maintains a high degree of suspense throughout. There wasn't a moment reading CATCH A SHADOW when I was tempted to skim a paragraph or skip a passage altogether. And there is no stinting on the relationship between Jake and Kirke. On her side, she has plenty of reasons to be mistrustful -- even fearful -- of him at first. But even then her empathetic radar wants to believe in him. He stirs something in her that she has never felt.

Secondary characters are wonderful as well. Though there are many, they are entirely distinct from one another. Kirke's platonic friend Sam, her saxophone playing tenant, is special; he gets lots of print, but even a rookie EMT, who has only a few paragraphs, makes a deep impression. Especially lovable is Merlin, who shall get no other description from me. You have to meet him for yourself. The villain is no nameless, mysterious entity to be exposed at the last minute. We are occasionally allowed to see from his point of view, which adds to the edginess. The chill is not pervasive, however, but is leavened with heart and humor.

Hours after finishing CATCH A SHADOW, I'm still under its spell. It's not a book soon forgotten. The Perfect 10 award guarantees this superb novel, from the very versatile Patricia Potter, a nomination as RRT's Best Book of 2008.

Jane Bowers