Date published: October 2008
ISBN: 978-0345499912
Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Gina
On the trail of a Half wizard who’s up to something less than savory, Lucas Fox suddenly finds himself naked on the beach in Brazil with his powers on the fritz. As a wizard he’s generally able to pop in and out of whatever situation is brewing and with his special skill of empathic perception, he can make memories fade so that only what he wants done or remembered remains.
On the road to career recovery, Sydney McBride has just had some “work” done and is writing about her experiences in the “body makeover” business. Nose jobs, lipo-suction, breast enhancement, you name it, the exclusive Novos Comecos Spa does it all. Following her own “hands on work” she’s got carte blanche to talk to the other guests be they Hollywood hotties or the otherwise rich and famous. Her working vacation is suddenly disrupted by the appearance of several nasty looking helicopters and cammie wearing bad guys with big guns. As if they weren’t surprise enough, she gets the real shock of a lifetime when the very naked, very potent Lucas Fox ends up in her room.
Not one to miss out on the chance of a good story, Sydney begins to piece together a whopper of a good one when she meets Lucas – a counter terrorist, spy who’s hotter than a white sandy beach at high noon in the summer time. Lucas needs her, and has no issues using her figuring he can wipe her memory at any time. The problem is, Lucas soon doesn’t want Sydney to forget him. Not for anything. What’s going on at Novos Comecos is a lot more than simple cosmetic enhancements. Lucas soon discovers that one of the most powerful wizards he’s ever encountered is running a combination illegal transplant and biochemical plant. What’s worse, is there’s something keeping him from using his powers in the most important of the spas buildings.
I’m not sure what to make out of NIGHT SECRETS. Aside from some oddities in continuity, which I felt should have been caught in editing, the story seems to have a bit of a problem deciding what it wanted to say. After NIGHT FALL, the first book in Ms. Adair’s latest trilogy of the men of T-FLAC, I expected much more of NIGHT SECRETS. NIGHT FALL was up there with KISS AND TELL and ON THIN ICE. NIGHT SECRETS disappointing. The co-mingled stories of the body farm and bio-terrorism plant I think took away from each other. The whole scenario of the illegal transplants and organ sales is creepy and alarming, especially since it is so very possible. The story line was reminiscent of Tess Gerritsen’s heart stopping HARVEST and was equally as chilling. The bio-terrorism felt like an after thought, as if to make the evil wizard even more evil. I could have been it’s own story.
There were any number of loose ends making me wonder if perhaps an unrealistic deadline had been set—what happened to Lucas’ team? How did Mike get settled in Montana less than 24 hours after rescue? What was the outcome of those chemical bombings around the world—if they were to set the stage for the final book, NIGHT SHADOWS, something needed to be said to link it. Is Mason dead or being held hostage? Why does Lucas’ powers amp up around Sydney? The long forgotten sister at the end felt like a red herring that detracted from the story. It felt like Ms. Adair had all these great ideas and was in a mad rush to include them all. Those loose ends, coupled with continuity issues such as on one page the Atlantic being too cold to swim in and a few pages later the water being nice and warm, I’m not sure Brazil has a highway patrol like we do in the United States, and liver disease doesn’t equate with renal failure –they are two different diseases. The discrepancies happened often enough that it was hard to stick with what is otherwise a highly suspenseful read.
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