Title: Backfire
(FBI Thriller Series #16)
Author: Catherine Coulter
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime
First published: July 10th 2012
Finished reading: April 2nd 2015
Pages: 480
“You’re going to live. That’s not to say you’re going to be happy for a while, but it beats the alternative.”
I was in the mood for a crime read last week and since Backfire has been on my TBR shelf for a while now, I decided to give this novel by Catherine Coulter a go. This one is actually the sixteenth book in the FBI Thriller series, but now I’ve read it I don’t think it is absolutely necessary to read them all in order. Sure, some of the background details of the main characters were missing, but it was still easy enough to pick up the story. The pace is fast and there is a lot going on at the same time. The prose is easy to read, although the romance scenes were a bit on the cheesy side for my taste. Some of the scenes weren’t completely believable either, especially when it comes to the actions of the bad guys… All in all not the perfect crime read I was looking for, but still good enough for a few hours of easy entertainment.
FBI agents and couple Lacy Sherlock and Dillon Savich have been asked to travel to San Francisco when their friend Judge Ramsey Hunt is shot. They suspect it has something to do with the case Ramsey was currently working on involving the couple Clive and Cindy Cahill… The two have been accused of murder and spionage, and federal prosecutor Mickey O’Rourke has been acting strange as well the day the judge was shot. It soon turns out something is off as O’Rourke seems to have disappeared without a trace the next day… And Sherlock and Savich suspect there is something bigger going on behind the whole shooting. Does it have anything to do with the secret information the Cahill couple has stolen? The CIA isn’t helping either, and things soon get more complicated as the shooter doesn’t seem to want to give up until the judge is actually dead. Will they be able to find the shooter on time? And what about the strange note that was delivered to Savich before they heard about the shooting?
I’m not sure if I will end up reading more of this series at some point, although I do know that if I will see one of them on sale I will probably end up buying it. Catherine Coulter writes in a way that is easy to read and while not all scenes are totally believable, the story is entertaining in general. Backfire is not the perfect read, but good enough for a few hours of easy reading on the beach or curled up in a chair with a cup of steaming coffee.
