Review: Sting by Sandra Brown

Reviewer: Casee
Sting by Sandra Brown
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: August 16th 2016
Genres: Mystery, Romantic Suspense
Pages: 416
Add It: Goodreads
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When Jordie Bennet and Shaw Kinnard lock eyes across a disreputable backwater bar, something definitely sparks. Shaw gives off a dangerous vibe that makes men wary and inspires women to sit up and take notice. None feel that undercurrent more strongly than savvy businesswoman Jordie, who doesn't belong in a seedy dive on the banks of a bayou. But here she is . . . and Shaw Kinnard is here to kill her.

As Shaw and his partner take aim, Jordie is certain her time has come. But Shaw has other plans and abducts Jordie, hoping to get his hands on the $30 million her brother has stolen and, presumably, hidden. However, Shaw is not the only one looking for the fortune. Her brother's ruthless boss and the FBI are after it as well. Now on the run from the feds and a notorious criminal, Jordie and Shaw must rely on their wits-and each other-to stay alive.

Miles away from civilization and surrounded by swampland, the two play each other against their common enemies. Jordie's only chance of survival is to outwit Shaw, but it soon becomes clear to Shaw that Jordie isn't entirely trustworthy, either. Was she in on her brother's scam, or is she an innocent pawn in a deadly vendetta? And just how valuable is her life to Shaw, her remorseless and manipulative captor? Burning for answers-and for each other-this unlikely pair ultimately make a desperate move that could be their last.

I haven’t read a Sandra Brown novel in quite sometime. This part of the blurb caught my eye: “But here she is . . . and Shaw Kinnard is here to kill her.”. I knew I had to read it. Usually I cruise right through Brown’s novels, but this one was slow going until about halfway through the book. That’s when it really got good and I could actually sit down and finish it.

Jordie Bennett thought her life was forfeit when she sees Shaw Kinnard bearing down on her in a seedy bar parking lot. Instead, he abducts her and takes her to a place that is impossible to escape. Shaw wants information on her brother, Josh. Josh is in protective custody after turning himself in for helping Billy Panella, a “dangerous criminal”, swindle people out of a total of thirty million dollars. Josh has promised to help the FBI find the thirty million and put Panella away. If they can find him.

Shaw wants more than the two hundred thousand that he was promised to kill Jordie. He wants the full thirty million not to kill her. To get that, he needs her help. To get her help he needs her to tell the truth, which he knows she’s not doing. Jordie is determined not to tell Shaw everything she knows because she needs a bargaining chip if she’s going to come out of this situation alive. Yet as the time slogs by, Jordie is less certain that Shaw is going to keep her alive. Even with their unwanted attraction (so cliché) to each other, Jordie knows that he’s going to kill her.

View Spoiler »Then Jordie is rescued. She finds out that Shaw is a deep cover FBI agent who has made it his mission to put Panella away after he swindled Shaw’s parents. That Shaw is an FBI agent doesn’t make Jordie feel better. If anything, it makes her feel like more of a fool. He was playing her the whole time. But Shaw knows that she was playing him too. There are secrets between them, secrets that Shaw wants out in the open. He wants Jordie, but he wants her honesty first; something he knows he hasn’t gotten.

There were so many twists and turns in this book that I had to backtrack and read it again. I was somewhat surprised by the ending, but not shocked. I wasn’t shocked that Shaw was an FBI agent because you can’t have a hitman/fugitive anti-hero be the hero in a book, though I did wonder how that was going to work out at the beginning. Even though I wasn’t surprised, I didn’t see the FBI agent thing coming. The truth of the matter is that when I’m reading a mystery, I usually have to get hit upside the head with a 2×4 before I see something coming. « Hide Spoiler

After the slow start, this was a good romantic suspense/thriller. It went at a fast, easy reading pace. I don’t know if I’ll read the next Sandra Brown novel, but I’m glad I read this one.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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