Judith’s review of A Just Deception
The protector: Peter Jessup, former Navy SEAL, currently employed by Taylor Security. He likes being the hero—in charge and in control.
His client: Lawyer Isabelle DeRosa. The sexy brunette is the personification of Peter’s fantasies. She’s willing to get physical but nothing more serious.
The assignment: When Isabelle becomes the prime suspect in the murder of her cousin, Peter is there to protect her and help her find the real killer. Their investigation leads to a big-name charity that seems to draw cultlike followers. Isabelle manages to infiltrate the group and become close to their leader, leaving Peter both jealous and worried for her.
As their search leads to danger, Peter realizes he’s falling in love with Isabelle. He wants all of her, but she’s too used to guarding herself to let him in…
I was excited when this second book in a series appeared after reading and reviewing the first book Man Law, and found that like many series, some characters were carried over. Not that they are main players in this story, but they give broader scope to the story for those who read the first novel. This is still a stand alone story and any reader new to this series or this author will still enjoy and be able to get everything out of this novel that I think the author intended.
That being said, we meet an operative who has come to that dangerous edge many people face who are in the protection “game” and where the inner person needs some R & R to recoup their humanity and sense of perspective. So it was with Peter Jessup, effective and lethal, yet hurting in body and soul at the loss of two of his buddies. Both deaths were tough even though when operatives with this agency are called upon to do “off the radar” government assignments there is always the danger that there will be lives lost. Yet Peter is in that bad place where he is blaming himself for the loss of his friends. His head tells him otherwise, but his heart is still grieving. His family is affluent but intrusive, so it is not a happy guy who is told by his boss to go home and rest, relax, be on vacation because he is “off the clock.”
Enter Isabelle DeRosa, close personal friend of one of the agency’s owners, who is once again being stalked by her cousin who abused and sexually assaulted her in her teens and who has been shielded by Isabelle’s uncle. Believing that it is simply a matter of supervising the installation of a security system, Peter is asked to oversee this seemingly innocuous project. After all, Isabelle lives close by. But it isn’t too long–a day or two–when problems arise. Peter meets the cousin and forms a very negative opinion. Then Isabelle and Peter receive the news that the cousin has been murdered and Isabelle is suspected, especially when it becomes known that the cousin had again threatened her safety. Now the plot thickens and begins to involve both Peter and Isabelle in an undercover project to find out the exact nature of the cousin’s “charity” and to answer a whole host of questions and inconsistencies related to that property and so-called charitable non-profit organization.
This is a fine novel, written beautifully, well-edited, put together with a sure hand, and one that will keep the reader right on the edge. There is a pervasive sense of evil about the organization that puts Isabelle’s teeth on edge as she infiltrates the property, going in as the cousin openly, but really trying to find out some answers and resolve some mysteries–some of which crop up after her arrival. Her cousin’s partner gives her the willies and openly ogles her at every opportunity. Hidden in a local motel, Peter monitors Isabelle’s activities along with another operative, a man with whom Peter has exchanged some heated punches in the past, but who is very good at what he does. However, underneath all the cloak and dagger stuff is a sort of on-again-off-again love story between Isabelle and Peter, one that the reader won’t really know much about other than it seems to be a right now sort of thing rather than a long term relationship. That seems to be the way both Isabelle and Peter want it, isn’t it?
Both these characters are hurting, fearful about the future, needing to trust but not really sure how to do that, needing to move past old hurts and griefs but not really sure how to do that either. Neither seem to be able to walk away from one another and sometimes that causes complications. It is not a simplistic love story at all. And surrounding this tentative and uneasy relationship is the situation with the murder, suspicion of being the culprit, the almost gut-level belief that nothing that her cousin was involved in could possibly be on the up and up, and the mysterious disappearance of a congresswoman’s daughter. It’s a very involved story with multiple strands that the reader holds like reins of a team of horses, and they must be juggled as the story progresses. Truthfully, it’s my kind of story.
The bottom line? Peter is what many would call a “man’s man” with all the machismo and blood/guts that special ops/former Navy SEALs are known for, yet he needs the softness of Isabelle’s understanding and comforting. On the other hand, Isabelle has been used and abused and is bound and determined that no one, most especially a man, is going to get the control of her life. Yet she needs Peter’s strength, his support and his sheltering arms when things get really “hairy.” They must walk this rocky path together and work pretty hard to try to find a way to resolve a whole host of points where they can’t seem to find resolution. There are no simple solutions, but in life there rarely are. This author has not backed away from the cost that men in dangerous endeavors must pay when they put their lives, their souls, their peace of mind on the line. There are also the difficulties that persist when victims of sexual abuse are not given the understanding and support by those closest to them.
So I recommend this riveting novel to those who like a love story that isn’t syrupy and cloying, who want the grit and edge when getting down to the place where good collides with pure evil, and who want a book that will exercise the brain as well as entertain. You’ve got it with this book.
I give it a rating of 4.5 out of 5.
You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.
This book is available from Carina Press. You can buy it here
I thought this book was excellent — I liked it more than MAN LAW! Peter and Izzy both had some heavy issues with which to deal but it didn’t drag down the book.