Untouchable by Jayne Ann Krentz – Review, Excerpt & Giveaway
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Description:
Quinton Zane is back.
Jack Lancaster, consultant to the FBI, has always been drawn to the coldest of cold cases, the kind that law enforcement either considers unsolvable or else has chalked up to accidents or suicides. As a survivor of a fire, he finds himself uniquely compelled by arson cases. His almost preternatural ability to get inside the killer’s head has garnered him a reputation in some circles–and complicated his personal life. The more cases Jack solves, the closer he slips into the darkness. His only solace is Winter Meadows, a meditation therapist. After particularly grisly cases, Winter can lead Jack back to peace.
But as long as Quinton Zane is alive, Jack will not be at peace for long. Having solidified his position as the power behind the throne of his biological family’s hedge fund, Zane sets out to get rid of Anson Salinas’s foster sons, starting with Jack.
Review:
Untouchable by Jayne Ann Krentz is the 3rd book in her Cutler, Sutter, and Salinas series. This series revolves around 3 adopted brothers, who were saved 20 plus years ago, by the then cop (Anson Salinas) from sure death by a cult leader. Though the cult leader (Quinton Zane) was presumed dead, the Salinas family knows better and has continued to search for the man who killed their mothers, using their private investigation firm run by their adopted father. The first two books belonged to Max and Cabot, and in Untouchable the third brother, Jack takes center stage.
Jack Lancaster, is a consultant with the FBI, working on cold cases, especially those caused by fire, and he works occasionally with his foster brothers firm. Jack’s ability enables him to envision the killer’s methods in his dreams, allowing him to be able to find the missing clues, which helps him find the killers. Jack’s dreams though over time have taken a toll on him, with nightmares, so he hires a meditation therapist to help him.
Winter Meadows, our heroine, is more than a therapist; as she has her own secrets. Winter is also a hypnotist, who is extremely good at her job, which also puts her in danger from clients. She helps Jack with his dreams, and how to use a code word to get out of the nightmare. Both Jack and Winter have had their own traumatic childhoods, but in a short time their working together will turn into a loyal friendship, and eventually a romance.
Quinton Zane is still alive, but under another name (Lucan Tazwell, and working closely with his newly found biological father and brother, heading the Tazewell hedge fund. Lucan hires people to find and kill Jack Lancaster, before he finds him; this will also include killing Winter. Lucan is evil, having killed many as the cult leader, with his hobby of creating fires. He now wants full control of the families hedge fund, and without blinking an eye, he will attempt to kill them too. He knows Jack is getting closer, and pushes his people to do anything to get rid of them.
What follows is an exciting and interesting story, especially as we watch Jack go into his dark dreams, and Winter use her fantastic ability with hypnosis. I did like Jack and Winter together, as they made a good couple. There were a few times that the situations were extremely intense, as I sat on the edge of my seat.
Krentz always creates excellent characters in her books, and manages to gives us another great couple, , and an evil villain. If you enjoy mystery, suspense, thrillers , then you need to read Untouchable. Even if you have not read the first book, you can read this book very well as a standalone. Once again, Jayne Ann Krentz has given us a wonderfully written story that keeps us engrossed from start to finish.
Reviewed by Barb
Copy provided by Publisher
She would have preferred the problem of fear. There were meditation strategies that could be employed to help a strong-minded person such as Jack cope with fear. She was not certain what to do with a man who kept company with ghosts.
A shiver of anxiety gave her pause. Jack was all right, she told herself. He had been calm when he left. Then again, he was always calm. Maybe too calm. She got the feeling that somewhere along the line he had learned to hold everything close inside.
There was no need to worry about him. Jack was all right.
But she could not shake the chill of dread. She realized now that it had been slowly coalescing throughout the evening, although there was no obvious reason for the uneasiness.
She went to a window and tweaked the faded flower-patterned curtain aside. She could just make out the narrow beam of Jack’s flashlight. It moved steadily along the bluff path until it reached a point midway between the two cottages. There it stopped.
The ominous sensation intensified. Maybe it was just the energy of the oncoming storm that was rattling her. But there had been too many times in the past when she had survived because she had heeded her intuition. She could not ignore the feeling that something was very wrong.
She dropped the curtain, grabbed her jacket and a flashlight, and went quickly to the door. She was not sure exactly what she was going to do, but she could not let Jack stand alone out there on the cliff path, not at such a late hour. Ghosts were always most powerful at night.
She got the door open and rushed out onto the porch, adrenaline flooding her veins. She went down the front steps and stopped, aware that the freshening storm wind was tossing her hair and tugging at the bottom edge of her jacket.
She knew that Jack had seen her because his flashlight was once again in motion. He was walking back along the path, heading toward her cottage.
She stopped on the porch at the top of the steps and waited until he moved into the circle of light cast by the fixture over the door. He halted at the bottom of the three steps. Behind the lenses of his glasses his eyes were more unreadable than ever but it seemed to her that there was a lot of heat in his gaze.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
There was no mistaking the icy edge on his voice.
“Nothing,” she said a little too quickly.
“Did you think I was going to jump?”
“No, of course not.” She was horrified by the question. “I’m sorry. I was just a little concerned, that’s all.”
“I’m not going to jump.”
“I never thought you would. I just got one of those weird little feelings. You know how it is.”
There was a beat of acute silence.
“You’re worried about me,” Jack said.
She folded her arms. “You just concluded a difficult case. You need time to recover.”
“What I said a moment ago—that sometimes my focus on cases involving fire scares the hell out of me—that’s what made you nervous, isn’t it?”
“Well, yes. Maybe. A little. But now I think I understand.”
“Yeah? In that case, why don’t you explain it to me? Because I’m not sure I understand.”
“I realize now that, in your own fumbling way, you were probably trying to warn me that you might not be good relationship material.”
“Fumbling?” he repeated, as if he was not familiar with the word.
“Awkward? Not very subtle?”
“Can I assume you got the message?” he asked.
“Message received.”
He stood quietly for a moment as if he didn’t know where to go with that information. He looked grim and resigned, as if she had now become just one more ghost.
“Is that it, then?” he said finally. “Just message received?”
“I didn’t say that I was going to pay attention to the warning.”
“Are you going to pay attention to it?” he asked.
She smiled. “Nope.”
She might as well have connected a couple of electrical wires. A fierce energy heated his eyes. And then he moved.
He dropped the flashlight into a pocket, vaulted up the three porch steps, gripped her shoulders and pulled her into his arms. She barely had a chance to catch her breath before his mouth came down on hers.
She thought she was prepared for his kiss but she had been very, very wrong. Electricity arced across her senses, igniting a response that stunned her.
For a heartbeat or two she was overwhelmed by the intensity of the experience. Then an adrenaline-fueled excitement kicked in. She was suddenly shivering, but not because of the chilled night wind off the ocean.
Posted by arrangement with Berkley, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random House Company. Copyright © Jayne Ann Krentz, 2019.
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