From Publishers Weekly
In Lowell's well-crafted fifth St. Kilda Consulting thriller (after Blue Smoke and Murder), Manhattan operative Emma Cross travels to Seattle, Wash., where Blackbird , a yacht purported to contain enough explosives to destroy a major U.S. city, is being offloaded from a container ship. Posing as the representative of a buyer interested in the yacht, Emma connects with MacKenzie Mac Durand, Blackbird 's transit captain, who's supposed to deliver the boat to a commissioning yard in the San Juan Islands. Emma and Mac, who has a background in special ops, wind up becoming unlikely allies on a dangerous sea journey in which they find themselves succumbing to their mutual attraction. Forced into a high stakes encounter with a pair of Russian spies, they come to realize that the scope of their mission is much greater than they at first assumed. Lowell's primary focus on espionage rather than on romance is a major change from earlier novels, albeit a pleasing one. (June)
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From Booklist
A couple of missing yachts is not a case that would ordinarily involve the private security firm of St. Kilda Consulting. But when an identical double of one of the yachts turns upβand a high-placed U.S. government official believes there is a connection to an upcoming terrorist plotβit does become St. Kilda's latest assignment. Which is how Emma Cross, former CIA agent and current St. Kilda operative, finds herself in Seattle trying to finesse her way past transit captain MacKenzie Durand and get onboard the Blackbird. With the clock ticking, Emma doesn't have time to deal with a cranky, yet incredibly sexy, captain, but fortunately it doesn't take much to convince Mac to become St. Kilda's newest employee. Working together isn't going to be easy for Emma and Mac, and once desire is injected into the equation, their mission becomes even more volatile and urgent. The latest thrilling addition to Lowell's St. Kilda series is another white-knuckle, adrenaline-drenched tale of danger and desire from one of the true masters of romantic suspense. --John Charles