Cold Spite (Cold Justice: Most Wanted 5) by Toni Anderson-review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 14, 2024

When FBI Agent Delilah Quinn survives an attempt on her life, she pretends to be dead in order to outwit her attacker. There is only one person she can turn to for help—a man she never wanted to see again…a man who abandoned her five years ago and left her heartbroken. A man definitely on the killer’s hit list.

FBI Hostage Rescue Operator Cas Demarco lives with the burning regret of choosing to join HRT and leaving Delilah behind. News of her death devastates him. Then she calls him out of the blue and he can’t help but seize this one last chance to make things right.

With both Delilah and Cas targeted for death, a task force is set up to catch their would-be killer, who they believe is a disgraced former Navy SEAL they helped convict of drug trafficking. Out of prison and on a ruthless quest for retribution, the former SEAL is eliminating everyone who wronged him—without leaving a shred of evidence behind.

Can Delilah and Cas prove who’s responsible for the attempts on their lives and have a second chance at a future together? Or will the rogue ex-SEAL double-down on his promise to destroy them both?

••••

REVIEW: COLD SPITE is the fifth instalment in Toni Anderson’s contemporary adult COLD JUSTICE: MOST WANTED erotic, romantic suspense series, a spin off set in the author’s COLD JUSTICE series. This is FBI Agent Delilah Quinn, and thirty-four year old, FBI Hostage Rescue Operator Cas Demarco’s story line. COLD SPITE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from several omniscient third person perspectives including Delilah and Cas COLD SPITE follows the second chance relationship between our story line couple. Approximately five years earlier, Agents Delilah Quinn and Cas Demarco went in undercover as a couple with the Mexican Cartel but a dirty agent threatened the investigation, and in doing so, targeted Delilah in the process. With the mission complete, Delilah and Cas returned home to have Cas push aside the woman with whom he had fallen in love. Fast forward to present day, Delilah believes she is being targeted by the same agent who threatened their investigation, and the only man she trusts is the man who broke her heart. Enter FBI Hostage Rescue Operator Cas Demarco. A killer is amassing a body count of people involved in the operation five years earlier, targeting family friends and direct encounters including threatening the lives of our story line couple. What ensues is the rebuilding relationship between Cas and Delilah, and the potential fall-out as their time together comes to a close.

The world building is detailed as the number of victims grows; the threats against Delilah becomes more personal, and the possibility of more than one betrayer working for the FBI.

The relationship between Cas and Delilah is one of second chances. Delilah fell in love with Cas Demarco while on assignment five years earlier but Cas pushed Delilah out of his life, choosing to enhance his career without Delilah by his side. Broken and having lost more than her heart, Delilah never want to rekindle her relationship with our story line hero but the only man she trusted is the man who broke her heart. The $ex scenes are provocative and passionate.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful, charismatic and familiar secondary and supporting characters crossing over from the previous story lines in the Cold Justice: Most Wanted series, as well as several characters and agents from the author’s original Cold Justice series, and Cold Justice: Negotiators.

COLD SPITE : MOST WANTED is a story of betrayal and vengeance, secrets and lies, heart break and forgiveness, power and control. The premise is dramatic, intense and intriguing; the romance is impassioned ; the characters are struggling, determined, dynamic and desperate.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Cold Silence
Cold Deceit
Cold Snap
Cold Fury

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Toni Anderson is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, RITA® finalist, science nerd, professional tourist, dog lover, gardener, mom. Originally from a small town in England, Toni studied Marine Biology at University of Liverpool (B.Sc.) and University of St. Andrews (Ph.D.) with the intention she’d never be far from the ocean. Well, that plan backfired and she ended up in the Canadian prairies with her biology professor husband, two kids, a rescue dog, and a laid-back leopard gecko.

Toni started writing while pregnant with her first child and never stopped. Her greatest achievements are mastering the Tokyo subway, climbing Ben Lomond, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, and surviving fourteen Winnipeg winters (fingers crossed). She loves to travel for research purposes and was lucky enough to visit the Strategic Information and Operations Center inside FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 2016, and she also got to shove another car off the road during pursuit training at the Writer’s Police Academy in Wisconsin. Watch out world!

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