Two operatives of the private covert operations force known as the Sentinels face crises in Reckoning for the Dead (Harper). This fourth book in Jordan Dane’s Sweet Justice series will be released Sept. 27, 2011.
Alexa Marlowe confronts the loss of Garrett Wheeler, the Sentinels chief, a man who was once her lover. Garrett has disappeared and is reported to be dead, killed during a failed mission in Mexico. Alexa’s continued respect for Garretts’s professional skill causes her to doubt the news of his death.
When Garrett’s position at the Sentinels is quickly filled by Donovan Cross, a man she instantly distrusts, Alexa decides to personally investigate Garrett’s death. She travels to Mexico where she confronts the Perez drug cartel. At this point, Dane adds a twist to the plotline surrounding Garrett’s death that is both surprising and effective.
Alexa’s new partner, Jessie Beckett, could not accompany her on the mission to find Garrett. Instead, Jessie is on her way to LaPoint, Wis. where she hopes to find information about her childhood abduction by Danny Ray Millstone, a notorious pedophile.
Jessie discovers that her answers may lie with Sophia Tanner, an elderly woman who had, twenty years earlier, revealed that she had seen children at the nearby home of murder victim Angela DeSalvo. A recent test had revealed Jessie’s own DNA among the crime scene evidence from Angela’s long ago murder.
Since Jessie has no memories of her childhood prior to her time with Millstone, she hopes Sophia will help her find out who she really is. However, the clearly frightened woman refuses to talk with Jessie, causing her to turn to her boyfriend, Seth Harper, a Sentinels computer expert, for assistance.
Reckoning for the Dead intersperses chapters about Jessie’s quest with those concerning Alexa’s investigation. In doing so, Dane deftly increases the suspense of both storylines.
Readers would, though, gain by reading the earlier books in the Sweet Justice series before this one. Dane explores Jessie Beckett’s background in Evil Without a Face (Book 1) and in The Wrong Side of Dead (Book 2). Alexa Marlowe is the subject of The Echo of Violence (Book 3).
FTC disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided by HarperCollins.
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