GRR Reviews Game of Fear (Montgomery Justice) by Robin Perini

Game of Fear tied a great concept and premise into a suspenseful romantic adventure that managed to pull in all the previous Montgomery family members and a few recruits, and this author can plot, when the concepts are tightly executed. Though this was more adventure than romance, as it's closer to a commercial technothriller.

Search and Rescue pilot Debra Lansing is frantic after her super-bright sister Ashley disappeared after visiting her and headed back to Air Force Academy. She feared that Ashley was kidnapped, but police will not take her seriously. The only one who did take her seriously was Gabe Montgomery, former SWAT officer, now reduced to bartender due to an injury suffered on a job caused by a corrupt cop (who sabotaged another SWAT officer's rifle, causing her to miss her shot that should have put down the suspect). And Deb Lansing was the medevac pilot that saved him. What Gabe didn't reveal was he's actually undercover, investigating the corruption in the county sheriff's office that may have killed his father, the previous sheriff, under suspicious circumstances, for Gabe was intimately linked to the case that neither could have foreseen. Super-bright kids had been disappearing for a decade... all across the country... and they have one thing in common... they all disappeared after mastering the game *Point of Entry*. When old bodies started turning up, Gabe and Deb are forced to work together to chase down any leads to recover Ashley, but their opponent is as ruthless in tying up loose ends as he is in achieving results. It may take the entire Montgomery clan, plus a few new recruits, to save the day.

The idea that a game can be used as a recruiting tool, albeit involuntarily, was creepy yet very believable except the time-scale. A game franchise that lasted over a decade? On the other hand, the plotline that combined The Last Starfighter with an inverted Ender's Game was great. The body count here is numerous, people die left and right, and police and Feds are clueless. It was really the darkest hour until the very end. And it was an exciting ride.

Category: Romantic suspense

Primary Plot: S&R Pilot's genius sister disappeared; the only one who can find her is an undercover ex-cop investigating a grand conspiracy and his family

Tropes: law enforcement, paramedic, kidnapping, conspiracy

Overall Rating: 5/5 (rounded up)

GRR Review: Behind the Lies by Robin Perini

"Behind the Lies" by Robin Perini, the 2nd book in the Montgomery Justice series, turned out to be a huge letdown when threats failed to coalesce properly into a satisfying conclusion.

The cloak-and-dagger son of the Montgomery Clan, Zach Montgomery, mixes being an actor and being a CIA operative. When a mission went very wrong, Zach had to hide back home. Next to Zach's US estate lived Jenna Walters, who hurriedly got her son out the house as she just got proof that her husband is an international assassin, and he knew that she knew. She managed to stow herself and her son into Zack's pickup when he left down to his mountain cabin, trying to get away. Zach and Jenna are forced to stay together and away from the public: he from whoever wanted to terminate him, and her from her husband and whoever working for him. 

While the intro that brought them together was long, and a bit slow, it wasn't the major problem. It's the kid, who bent every which way, sometimes following mom's orders, something liking Zach as an uncle, sometimes rebelling. Then there's yet ANOTHER bad guy succeeding where others had failed...  There are just too many plotlines and while they are resolved, they seem to be extra, with no less than three or four groups of enemies. Things seems to just happen and the heroes are just reacting to problems.

Category: Romantic Suspense

Primary Plot: Secret agent / actor being hunted by unknown bad guys is stuck with a mother on the run with her son from her international assassin husband

Overall Rating:  3/5