Lethal Affairs

DETAILS

Title: LETHAL AFFAIRS

Author: Kim Baldwin & Xenia Alexiou

Publisher: Bold Strokes Books

ISBN: 1-60282-022-8

Genre: Lesbian Fiction | Thriller

BACKCOVER BLURB

Elite operative Domino is no stranger to peril and impossible situations. Trained all her life to be just as comfortable fighting terrorists as mixing with the gala crowd, she is proficient at playing any role necessary to accomplish her objective and believes the cause sanctifies the means. But her latest assignment to investigate journalist Hayley Ward will test more than her skills, ingenuity and courage, because this time she faces the ultimate dilemma: a choice between loyalty and love.

WHAT I THOUGHT

To quote off the back cover: “Love is never more lethal!” is a fun way to sum up this fast-paced, action-packed thriller and first outing for newcomer, Xenia Alexiou, writing with her seasoned partner, Kim Baldwin. Who, if you read a great deal of lesbian fiction, has several action-packed novels already under her belt.

Lethal Affairs is an excellent first outing for this pair of long-distance writers, collaborating on a new series that looks like it will offer up a great deal of fun, fast reads.

This one isn’t without its flaws, no first book ever is, but minor, and I stress, minor plot holes and considerations aside, Lethal Affairs holds up well, so well I read it twice within a matter of weeks. Something I don’t do often. What keeps this one together is the deft writing well grounded in a sense of reality, the fully fleshed out corpulent characters (even the minor characters) including their personal foibles and weaknesses. And a story that (for the most part) hauls you along at such a well-constructed pace, that you just have to turn the page over and read the next chapter.

My only quibble, and it’s a personal one, was that I would have liked a bit more depth to both the love-interest, Hayley Ward, and the antagonist of the piece, Senator Terrence Burrows. Other than that, I think Kim and Xenia did a fantastic job of pulling all the strands together, and giving us, the reader, a thoroughly credible thriller, laced with enough innuendo and romance to heat up all the action.

Over all, this one is up there with the best of them.