A confusingly poor novel. Although over 500 pages long, half the book is irrelevant padding. The book also has countless factual and geographical errors; i.e. a burnt out car found west of Sarasota. That would be in the Gulf of Mexico then! Too many middle aged people having torrid and graphic sex - nearly all of whom have inter-racial partners. The author cannot resist inserting her own political and ideological politically correct beliefs at every opportunity. Too many characters, not enough plot and, in the words of Elvis "a little less conversation, a little more action" might have benefited this shambles. I persevered with the story because it fell just short of being binned, but only just. Although the improbable end game was quite good, I was relieved when I had finished the book and could donate it to a thrift store. I wouldn't bore a friend by passing it to someone that I knew.

I think the story of Sam and Allysa is one of the more interesting pairs in this series. Over the course of this series, we've seen them through a whole host of emotions including love/hate and lust. It was absolutely heartbreaking when their potential relationship comes to a screetching hault when Sam is trapped into a marriage by MaryLou, a woman he doesn't love or even know much about. Both Sam and Allysa are heartbroken and this installment in the series picks up as Sam travels to Florida to check on his soon to be ex-wife who isn't answering his phone calls. (about the divorce and seeing his child). A woman that appears to be MaryLous is found at her house, dead.

Sam calls his friend Jules at the FBI and Alyssa answers the call and gets involved with the case. As does Max Bhagat, whom is fighting feelings for Gina from "Over the Edge" (book 3). Max and Allysa have become sort of friends and maybe a little more because they confide in eachother about their hurts/troubled love lives.

The search begins for Sam to find his daughter and ex-wife (or are they even alive) the team is put in place. During this time, Sam and Alyssa become very close from a relationship point of view and Sam shares a horrible and troubled childhood that makes you want to cry. He does some soul searching about love, relationship, sex etc. Sam is a very complex character and previously showed himself almost exclusively as the alpha-male with a bit of heart, but his hear sure shows here. He's one of the best characters in the series (though I love Bhagat too). We do see a lot of Max Bhagat in this one and Gina begins to push/force the issue of their relationshp. You also get to see sides of Max other than that cool, calm collected negotiator.

This story also touches on some social issues which I think really adds to this story. The one thing that bothered me was that with this installment and the previous installment, it seemed that Brockmann was trying to get the reader to sympathize with MaryLou. I had much trouble because she got pregnant to trap Sam. I found the hell she went througat home to be very self-imposed and could not feel sorry for her.

I felt a strange sense of loss at the end of this book. As I have come to know and like these characters, the ending takes many of them in other directions careerwise. I am hoping that this won't be the last that we see from some of these amazing characters.