Title: Sight Unseen
Author: Samantha Graves
Published in April 2007 by Warner Romance
Genre: Romantic Suspense
ISBN: 0-446-61838-1
Raven Callahan has a rare talent, and it is one not many people would accept let alone want to use or acknowledge. Most would not believe her anyway, because when it comes to psychic talents, no one wants to know about it, acknowledge them or believe such a thing exists. For years, Raven has worked in the shadowy world of the underground as a thief, learning the trade at her father’s knee. When tragedy struck, Raven did her best to change her life and her luck, and with that drive and her talent, began to make use of her skills in a legitimate way. Now she is thief to the system, breaking into and stealing back valuable documents and treasures of all kinds for governments, museums, private collectors, and some very large influential entities and corporations. Her main goal has been the protection of her family. Her sister, Jillian Talbot, is all she has left, and she too has psychic talent which helps in her career as a very successful assistant curator at the MET. Together they made a formidable team, but Raven keeps Jillian as far away from her as possible now. She does not want Jill tainted by her past, and resents the fact her father, whom she ignores, doesn’t seem to feel the same way.
It is bad enough Jill stays in touch with their dad, that is trouble enough so Raven doesn’t want her affected by what she does for a living, the shady characters she is forced to deal with at times. No one really knows who Raven Callahan is except for her boss and her partner, and she wants to keep it that way for her sister’s safety. This time, the ball was in her partner and friend Walter Abbott’s court. A rare painting needs to be acquired, and Walter is taking it on as a last job before retirement. Raven would miss him, he has been a mentor and friend to her, so it is a huge shock when he’s kidnapped. Whoever has done this planned well, and is familiar with Raven‘s modus operandi. She suspects an inside job somehow, but the distraction of possibilities is not want she needs right now. She has to find Walter, and she will do anything to get him back alive, even throw her lot in with an ex-Detective turned PI named David Maddox. Between them, and her boss at the Antiquities Preservation Institute, she is certain they’ll find the culprit. Things are tight, and when Walter turns up dead, to say the game turns deadly is quite trite but true.
David Maddox is a haunted man. He was a devoted and experienced cop, a good friend, and a believer in justice. Was being the operative word because one incident involving a break-in, a robbery gone bad, resulted in the loss of his partner and has given him nightmares ever since. He has not been the same. The incident and the resulting guilt caused him to leave the department. Now he is devoted to only one thing, catching a cop killer. He is soured on the system, but still determined to find and destroy the man or men responsible, the people who killed, no slaughtered his young partner and so callously destroyed his life. Yes, he also blames himself for what he can’t change. The should have dones, could have beens all war inside of him, eating him up over Nick’s death. Responsibility lays heavily on his shoulders, and he knows instinctively he can’t rest until Nick’s killers are caught. For David, known as Dax to his friends and co-workers, it starts with a woman. Beautiful, elusive, and in his mind guilty as hell, Susan Carey, aka Raven Callahan is the place to start, and just his luck, she has again wandered into his view. Maybe with a few careful ploys, she will fall into his net.
Dax was not expecting to see the cool beauty flustered by the disappearance of the old man, her partner. It isn’t that he thinks her unfeeling, it is just her normally cool and reserved exterior under fire makes him wonder. Dax wasn’t expecting to feel the attraction which started to burn inside him when they finally meet, and isn’t prepared for the repercussions either. Under the most ordinary circumstances, he might have ignored her for larger prey, but she’s involved somehow with Nick’s death, and he isn’t going to let this opportunity get away. She is his best place to start from another angle on a trail gone cold. She swears her presence there when Nick was shot was a coincidence, one in a long line of mysterious near escapes and close calls she has had recently in her recoveries. He is skeptical, but Dax knows she could be telling the truth. Her presence at the scene of another “ art scene crime” keeps him uncertain, and also keeps him pinned to her side. There is a connection here, it is a gut feeling. Experience tells him not to ignore it because his gut feelings are not often wrong. His instincts tell him she’s a clue, his heart could be telling him something else…
Kudos, Samantha! Welcome readers to the wonderful world of Romantic Suspense according to Samantha Graves. This is a different sort of book for Ms Graves who is better known as C. J. Barry, author of some of the most tantalizing futuristic novels available. Now she has come out with a new identity, a new genre with Warner Books and a surefire hit. Sight Unseen is the story of a woman who is fighting for a semblance of a normal life. Yes, her past is shady, but Raven doesn’t let little facts like that get in her way. Working for the Antiquities Preservation Institute allows her to use her skills. Dubious as those skills may be, they allow her to bring in an honest paycheck, and allow her to work within the world she loves, the world of Fine Art. Dax is a good man set on a course of self-destruction. He feels he let his partner down, got him killed and it is eating him alive. When he sets his sights on Raven, a suspected art thief, he is drawn into her shadowy world of art reclamation, of “legal theft.” Suddenly the woman who looked so guilty before suddenly has a new face, and his grudging respect.
Now Dax and Raven fight the odds and find their way through a maze of ever changing twists and turns. For Raven, losing Walter was almost too much, but she gathers her anger and her courage to continue. Forging ahead is her only choice, and with or without Dax, she will solve this problem and get rid of the diabolical fiend who so coldly killed her friend. Dax is a royal pain to Raven, yet he knows what he is doing. When they find themselves almost literally joined at the hip and both wanted for Walter Abbott’s murder, they suspect there is a lot more at stake than they were first led to believe. Raven and Dax are drawn from Miami, to Virginia, Havana to New York. The pair must track the events and the art to discover the master mind behind Raven’s close calls, Walter’s murder, and strangely enough, Nick’s killer. Sight Unseen and Samantha Graves gives us a pair of fantastic characters, strong, resilient, independent, and very determined. Fireworks fly when they butt heads, and flames threaten to engulf them, but passion and love waits only till their world settles down, and then there are no holds barred. Sight Unseen is a fast paced thriller, and a real page turner you will not be able to put down. Warner Books and Ms Graves are providing excellent reading in Sight Unseen which will be available soon in a bookstore near you.
Yours in good reading,
Rose!
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