Evil. Evil wears many faces, takes many forms. Evil can cloak itself in innocence. Evil can disguise itself in brilliance. And right now, at this very moment, Evil is running around looking a whole lot like Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux.

Divide & Conquer is the perfect cure for that pesky habit I have of sleeping. Who needs that when you can lay in the dark instead, watching the last lines from a book tumble around your brain like the balls in a BINGO cage? When you can lay there and simultaneously praise and curse said authors of said lines for luring you in, making you read obsessively in the pursuit of seeing those three little words spoken by a certain FBI agent, rejoicing when the payoff finally comes, only to get a not-so-fast-idiot sucker punch to the freaking heart, in the end? Hmph. It’s pretty much my definition of perfection.

For FBI Special Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett, simple just doesn’t fit into the equation. They are each far too complex, individually, to bring anything even remotely close to uncomplicated into a relationship. They are men who will run headlong into a firestorm, take a bullet to protect the other, but when it comes to being emotionally vulnerable to each other? Well, they’re taking a long damn ride on the short bus to Happytown, that’s for sure. They really should just stop and ask for directions.

Confronted with a teenage sociopath with an obsession for making things go boom throws Grady and Garrett right into the thick of a media, PR, and social nightmare. The court of public opinion is crucifying both local and government law officials for their inability to protect the city of Baltimore from the escalating violence and unrest. Becoming media darlings and public relations spin doctors is the last thing the two agents wanted, but it’s what they got when their images were captured, storming into the fray, guns blazing, then broadcast all over the news. Cameras rolling, Ty throws down the gauntlet to the bomber in the way only Ty can. Sound bites like that are enough to make the news media wet themselves with glee, but when you’re dealing with an unsound mind, a verbal challenge like that can only serve to make you a target. And this time, it’s Zane who wears the bullseye.

Anyone who’s followed this series from the beginning knows that doing things the easy way is not what Ty and Zane are about, so don’t expect them to start now. If you do, you’ll only be disappointed and maybe even a little peeved. They each still have too much to learn about the other, not to mention too much to learn about themselves before they can make peace with the fact they’re so in love in that all consuming, don’t want to live without you, lines blurring kind of way, that it has them scared s@*tless. They realize it now. The hard part, however, is accepting it. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And therein lays the potential problem.

Grady and Garrett come equipped with a lot of oversized emotional baggage that keeps popping open and spilling its contents all over the place. It’s part of their allure. Just when you think you have them figured out, you realize you don’t, at least, not in any significant way. Their pasts continue to throw too many dark shadows over what could probably be something entirely brilliant, if only they could trust in each other in their personal lives as much as they do the professional. These two men require much patience and a whole lot of diligence on the part of the reader to remain firm in the conviction that they will, sigh, someday get this love business right.

In the meantime, Madeleine and Abigail continue to manipulate and maneuver things along expertly. Between adrenaline pumping action, scorching love scenes, and a slow and beautiful seduction that was truly one of the most romantic scenes I believe I’ve ever read, they’ve managed to both infuriate and captivate, all in a mere thirteen words that come just before The End.

Never fear, though. There’s an excerpt from Armed & Dangerous that comes just after The End. And if you haven’t read it already, you might want to read Warrior’s Cross before book 5 comes out. I'm looking forward to seeing Julian and Cameron again.