Chosen Target

Rather than face the prospect of facing her 31^st birthday alone, Jadan Calloway ventures to Bangle’s, a local hot spot. Before she can totally immerse herself in her private pity party tall, chestnut and oh so gorgeous Kent McAllister finds his way to her. A simple dance isn’t enough for Kent. No, he wants to take Jadan out to his truck and have incredibly hot and delicious sex with her. Jadan has never done anything like that, but turning 31 and being alone, along with several devastating losses in her life, she agrees. The sex is hotter than anything she has ever experience; Kent is her every bad girl fantasy and within moments of completing the act he lies dead in his truck.

A few weeks later, one of Jadan’s employees at her coffee house, Jadan’s Java, finds a PDA shortly before closing. Before Jadan can do more than open it up and get a quick look at the calendar a swarthy looking man enters the shop and demands his PDA back. Despite the fact that all Jadan has seen was some innocent looking entries on the calendar the man explodes.

Just returned from thirteen months in Iraq, New Orleans Police Detective Cole McAllister finds himself investigating Jadan’s attempted murder. In seconds, he realizes that Jadan is the woman who was with his brother, Kent, when he died. With so many unanswered questions surrounding Kent’s death, Cole takes an instant dislike to Jadan. There is no doubt in his mind that even if she did not take his life herself, she knows more than she is saying. Before he can begin his own investigation into Kent’s death, another attempt is made on Jadan’s life and Cole finds himself between a rock and a hard place—suspecting Jadan of killing Kent while at the same time tasked with protecting her from what appear to be terrorists planning the crime of the century.

In this offering of Ms. Atkins’ New Orleans’ Police Department series, there is her trademark non-stop action coupled with dynamic characters that are fully developed and intriguing in their own way.

Readers get a glimpse of Ms. Atkins’ ability to stretch herself in her writing with the opening scene where this reviewer found herself telling Jadan, “No, don’t go out there, don’t get into that truck!” With an almost gothic-like suspense, the reader will feel like he or she is on the edge of their seats watching what could be the biggest mistake of Jadan’s life. Imagine making love to an incredibly hot partner only to have them die moments after being in their arms. A chilling thought to be sure. Then couple that with a pending terror attack where ideology overrides common sense. Mix in a couple that can’t but help falling in love with each other and you have CHOSEN TARGET.

This reviewer quickly became a big fan of Ms. Atkins writing. Her stories are well researched, suspenseful and give a glimmer of her own humor through the pages. CHOSEN TARGET, however, was a bit of a disappointment to this reviewer in a few aspects. There seemed to be an overuse of Cole’s regret of his lost love, Leah. The constant reminder that he felt he failed her may have run continuously through his mind, but to read it over and over again became slightly tedious.

Kudos to Ms. Atkins for tackling a post 9/11 terror story line. Coupling it in post-Katrina New Orleans would be difficult for even the most talented author to write well. There is a fine line between writing an intense drama and being overly dramatic when dealing with both subjects. Ms. Atkins rides both sides of the line, mostly offering a good story, yet the clichés tend to show themselves a bit too often for this reviewer.

Jadan is an awesome character and this book is recommended if for no other reason than to see a truly unique female character.

Each story Ms. Atkins’ series are stand alones and can be read out of order. This reviewer highly recommends all of them, even with the quirks she saw in CHOSEN TARGET.

Ms. Atkins is a talent that is going to go far.

March 2007