COLD & DEADLY (Cold Justice: Crossfire #1) by Toni Anderson-a review

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About the book: Release Date February 12, 2019

Hostage Negotiators can talk themselves out of anything—except falling in love.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dominic Sheridan is an accomplished expert in the Crisis Negotiation Unit. Practiced, professional, used to dealing with high-stake situations under tense conditions, Dominic is a master at manipulating people. Everyone, that is, but the headstrong rookie agent bent on destroying her fledgling career.

As a child, Ava Kanas put her life on the line when the mob executed her father. Now someone has killed her mentor, the man who inspired her to become an FBI agent—and she’s the only one who recognizes it was anything but a tragic accident.

When another agent is murdered and Dominic nearly dies, it becomes obvious a serial killer is targeting the FBI. Together Dominic and Ava search for clues in the investigation, all the while fighting a forbidden attraction that will complicate everything, especially when the predator sets their sights on Ava.

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REVIEW: COLD & DEADLY is the first instalment in Toni Anderson’s contemporary, adult COLD JUSTICE: CROSSFIRE romantic suspense series-a spin off/crossover with the author’s COLD JUSTICE series. This is FBI Supervisory Special Agent and hostage negotiator Dominic Sheridan, and rookie agent Ava Kanas’s story line. You do not have to have read the previous series to understand or follow the Crossfire series.

Told from three third person perspectives (Dominic, Ava and the killer) COLD & DEADLY focuses on the hunt for a killer, targeting FBI agents. At the funeral for her mentor and friend Agent Van Stamos, Ava Kanas, Dominic Sheridan and the other members of the FBI become sitting ducks; proverbial targets for a gunman h*ll bent on taking down anyone connected to the past. Hoping to prove Van’s suicide was a murder and not the final act of a desperate man, Ava Kanas along with Dominic Sheridan begin an investigation of their own only to discover that both have been pulled from active duty. Several attempts against Dominic’s life; and the deaths of several agents connected to the New York Field Office of the FBI, find Ava and Dominic hunting down a serial killer long thought dead and buried. What ensues is the building relationship between Ava and Dominic, and the potential fall-out as Ava becomes collateral damage in a game of murder and revenge.

Ava Kanas is desperate to prove her mentor and friend did not take his own life but the people higher up refuse to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Dominic Sheridan is used to negotiating with hostages in a crisis situation but trying to pull Ava back from the brink pulls our hero into an investigation directly connected to his past. Ava will be assigned as Dominic’s security when yet another attempt on Dominic’s life nearly ends it all.

The relationship between Ava and Dominic begins acrimoniously as Ava goes rogue in an attempt to prove her mentor’s murder. Dominic, desperate to help the woman with whom he is falling in love calls in some favors with the FBI. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

The world building follows several paths including a domestic dispute, an escaped prisoner, and a hostage situation at a medium security federal correction prison that will bring Ava’s life full circle with the past. We are up close and personal with FBI negotiators as they struggle to prevent further chaos, killings and the rape of a federal employee. The character development is revealing and interesting.

We are introduced to Ava’s supervisor FBI Director Raymond Aldrich, FBI profiler Lincoln Frazer, and Chief Negotiator of the FBI Quentin Savage, Charlotte Blood, Alex Parker and Mallory Rooney. Alex and Mallory were first introduced in A COLD DARK PLACE –Cold Justice Book 1.

COLD & DEADY is a story of betrayal, vengeance, madness and love. The premise is intriguing, suspenseful and fast paced; the characters are energetic and captivating; the romance is a slow build to a happily ever after.

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Reviewed by Sandy