Deadly Little Secrets

Deadly #1

by Jeanne Adams

In Jeanne Adams's electrifying thriller, a beautiful CIA agent and a security expert find themselves in a desperate race against time. . .

Hot Pursuit

Security expert Gates Bromley's number one priority is protecting art collector Dav Gianikopolis. But when he joins forces with CIA Agent Ana Burton tracing several pieces of stolen art, Gates is distracted by the leggy brunette who stirs up the raciest thoughts. . .


After botching an operation that cost her colleagues' lives, Ana has been reassigned to cold cases. When news gets out that she's reopened a case involving stolen art and five brutal murders, Ana is almost killed. Seeking comfort in Gates's strong embrace is easy, but surrendering trust to the sexiest man she's ever known isn't--unless Gates can show her that an attraction this hot is worth all the risks. But first he'll have to stop a killer who's bent on keeping the past buried. . .


Praise for Dark And Dangerous

"Non-stop action!. . .this thrilling debut. . ..will leave you rapt and breathless." --Lisa Gardner

Genres: Romance, Romantic Suspense, Ebooks, Mystery, Suspense, Contemporary, Fiction

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

It’s wonderful for a writer to live near Washington, DC as I do. The research resources are fabulous, the scenery is great – complete with monuments, gorgeous public buildings, and the most amazing, weird, convoluted, political people – and I get to be here with the most awesome family, friends and neighbors in the world. I live here with my wonderful husband (he’s my personal hero), my two delightful, growing-too-fast sons, and my three silly rescue dogs.

As former marketing executive, I worked for research parks, governmental concerns and not-for-profits, (which is also great fodder for the writer’s mind!) but now I’m happily employed as a consultant and full-time writer. I’m a member of Romance Writers of America, Science Fiction Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, and Thriller Writers. I’m also a proud member of the Washington Romance Writers, an RWA chapter, as well as several online RWA chapters. I'm a former board member of the Romance Writers of America.

One of the most enjoyable things I get to do as a consultant and writer, is to teach. I enjoy connecting with my clients, readers and other writers. Having also worked in the funeral and cemetery business for nearly thirteen years, I teach a class on Body Disposal.

Being part of the Ad(d)ams Family, as you can imagine, Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love to work in the garden, run my dogs, hang out with my family, and write. Other than that, as another, more famous author says, the rest is subject to change without notice.

Grins,

Jeanne

Reviews

[Ariel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure if it was the romance or the "solved" mystery, but something here just didn't work for me.

[Monique · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was okay and I enjoyed the quick easy read. It's a fluff piece with a not-so-suspense-filled plot as the jacket would have you believe.

Convoluted leaps of thought seems to conveniently solve the case and the characters seem flat.

Have mentally shelved under mindless housewife porn and will read again when in the mood for that sort of story.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable romantic suspense novel. The case is solved with data - hurray for nerds. Even though the solution was complicated, I think the author laid it out very clearly. Unlike a lot of RS, the protagonists don't shoot anyone.

[Paschalis]

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[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were no Deadly Little Secrets. Trashy, confusing, sexy, no surprises.

[Jane Stewart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incomplete plot. The case was not solved. I was not excited. I was not engaged.

STORY BRIEF:
CIA agent Ana is brilliant with computer research and hacking. She is currently doing cold case research, working on a nine-year-old art fraud case. Several pieces of art were stolen and replaced with fakes, and several people were killed. Dav is a victim who lost paintings. Ana contacts him about the case and meets Gates who is head of security for Dav. Gates helps her with the case. They quickly develop feelings for each other. There are several attempts on both their lives. They don’t know who is doing this or if the shootings are related.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
I’m having trouble with this. It’s not pulling me in. I’ve read ¾ of the book, and I feel like I don’t know any more now than I did at the beginning. Ana is doing computer research here and computer research there. Some bad guys have conversations, but I still don’t understand what’s going on other than three different unrelated bad guy groups connected to Ana or the art case. I haven’t been excited about anything.

I’m now at the end of the book. My thinking is what? What about the bad guys? It wasn’t tied together or explained. They arrest one guy. Others are still out there. There were multiple bad guy groups involved, and I still don’t know who did what or how everything was related. I was never in the bad guys’ heads to understand their motives or gains, so there was no showing, but there was also no telling. It was not good. Only one guy was arrested, and he didn’t have the paintings. The case is not over - but the book is. I feel like the author got tired of writing and just wanted to be done.

A secondary story involved someone shooting at Gates. That also was not explained well - just a short comment at the end. I wanted more details about the mind and motives of that bad guy.

Something else was odd. Almost all of Ana’s investigation was doing searches on her computer. She didn’t interact with people to gain information. In one scene she attended a fundraiser for the purpose of talking to certain people about the case, but she didn’t talk to anyone, other than party chit chat.

The best part of the book - one intimate scene was nice and sexy.

OTHER BOOKS:
I’ve reviewed the following Jeanne Adams books.
4 ½ stars to her first book Dark and Dangerous.
2 ½ stars. Dark and Deadly
2 stars. Deadly Little Secrets

DATA:
Story length: 329 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 5. Number of sex scene pages: 10. Setting: mostly San Francisco, California. Copyright: 2010. Genre: romantic suspense.

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CAUTION – MINOR SPOILER (about the couple separating):
Gate breaks up with Ana for her own good – to keep her safe. That’s not a favorite device for me. And it was not well done. The way he did it was cruel and mean. Why couldn’t he tell her the truth: that he loved her but wanted her to stay away until all this was resolved?

CAUTION – SPOILER ABOUT ONE OF THE BAD GUYS:
One of the bad guys owned a shipping company that had a connection to the stolen art. Through her computer searching Ana discovered that he used different names and was a bigamist. That was her big discovery, and they arrested him. But there was no evidence about the art fraud. Was he personally involved with the thefts? Was an employee of his doing it? Where was the proof that his company actually did something wrong with the paintings? I saw nothing that a prosecutor could use.

[Bookaholics · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deadly Little Secrets by Jeanne Adams
Romantic Suspense -Sept, 1st, 2010
4 stars

Those who love thrillers and hot romance will not be disappointed in Deadly Little Secrets.

Ana Burton is a CIA agent on probation due to fallout from a mission gone wrong in Rome thanks to faulty data. This incident has crippled her confidence and her usual extroverted personality. Now she has been downgraded to working on old cases. She finds herself investigating a case of stolen items and meets the attractive assistant and security expert to the owner of the missing items named Gates Bromley. She is unnerved by how much Gates affects her.

When her friend invites her to an art showing Ana at first declines until she notices the art gallery may have a connection with her case. Undercover and in disguise, she stumbles into the devilishly handsome Gates. He recognizes her. Although Ava knows she must try to stay away from him, he attracts her like no other man. But there are powerful people who don’t want this case solved and they will resort to murder to keep it closed.

This a deep book that is not a quick read. The author puts in a great amount of detail to make her characters feel authentic. As a result it draws the reader in and makes them think. I really felt that Ana was a tough CIA agent with brains and the know-how to use them. Gates is an intelligent man who takes his job very seriously. Together they band together to try to break the cold case. They make a very effective and deadly team. I liked that the author leaves clues as I tried to figure out what was really happening on this case. The author also doesn’t stint on the steamy romance which flowed well with the mystery.

[Teena in Toronto · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book very confusing.

I didn't understand about the botched operation in Rome that had Ana assigned to the cold cases pending the inquiry. It seemed like this was a book in a series and I missed the first one so didn't know the history. I've since checked and this is a stand alone book ... so the author didn't do a good job to let me know what had happened in the past.

I also didn't understand what the plot was about the art thefts ... I've finished the book and I still don't know what happened or why or who the bad guys are and why they did it.

A crazy woman killed Gates' family years ago. Why? I don't know. Was she still stalking him? If so, why? I don't know.

There were a lot of characters in this book and it was hard to keep everyone straight ... so I didn't.

After all the build-up towards the end, it just ended. I was hoping that all would be revealed to me and I'd get what was happening. But it didn't.

Gates and Ana meet, go through all this turmoil with people getting killed, shot or disappear and attempts on their own lives which doesn't really phase them, and a couple weeks later they are married and have a happy ending. I don't think so.

Can you tell I wouldn't recommend this book? You're probably wondering why I kept reading it. I did enjoy the writing style ... just not the story or the characters. I kept hoping it would get better.

Blog review: http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2011/03...

[Sibilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished reading Deadly Little Secrets and I liked it very much.
Basically, the story is about Ana Burton, CIA agent and data anlyst, who is on probation because of a fallout due to a case in rome, where two other agents were killed in the process.
Then, she is assigned to cold cases. Currently she is working on a 9-year-old art fraud case. During her invesigations, she meets Gates Bromley. He is responsible for the safety and secuirity of Dav Gianikopolis. Dav Gianikopolis is involved in the art fraud case, so Gates and Ana begin to work together in order to uncover the truth. During their investigations, followed by murder attempts on Gates and Ana, they discover similarities in their pasts and fall in love with each other.

The love story and the two main characters were well portraited and well written. during love scenes, I couln´t put the book down. But the plot about the art fraud was a bit confusing and also kind of boring for me. So many people were involved, from my opinion too many people, sometimes it was hard to follow the plot as some of the characters involved in the art fraud, were unknown and made it difficult to see who is who. Perhaps I need to read this book more than once, to understand the entire plot correctly in all its facades. But all in all, it was a good read.

[Valentin · Rating 4 out of 5]

SUMMARY:
In Jeanne Adams's electrifying thriller, a beautiful CIA agent and a security expert find themselves in a desperate race against time . . . HOT PURSUIT Security expert Gates Bromley's number one priority is protecting art collector Dav Gianikopolis. But when he joins forces with CIA Agent Ana Burton tracing several pieces of stolen art, Gates is distracted by the leggy brunette who stirs up the raciest thoughts...After botching an operation that cost her colleagues' lives, Ana has been reassigned to cold cases. When news gets out that she's reopened a case involving stolen art and five brutal murders, Ana is almost killed. Seeking comfort in Gates' strong embrace is easy, but surrendering trust to the sexiest man she's ever known isn't - unless Gates can show her that an attraction this hot is worth all the risks. But first he'll have to stop a killer who's bent on keeping the past buried . . . Praise for DARK AND DANGEROUS 'Non-stop action! . . . this thrilling debut . . . will leave you rapt and breathless.' -Lisa Gardner

[E. Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was attending a local booking signing this weekend, and while waiting in line, I was checking out the bookshelves and book tables. I wasn’t really looking for anything new. My TBR list is HUGE. But it was one of those random moments when you pick up a book, read the back cover, and something sparks. I had to buy it. No second-guessing, just had to have it. Romance, danger and a tough female lead - exactly my kind of book. But still, I was caught off guard. Once I started reading, I didn’t want to put it down! I read it straight through and then immediately downloaded the sequel. Ms. Adam’s characters leapt off the page and her plot was intelligent, unique, and exciting. It was easy to get caught up in Ana and Gates, their attraction for one another and the danger they were in. And the plot twists kept me guessing until the very end. Would I recommend this book? ABSOLUTELY! Have I already started book two? You bet!

[Dísir · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather disappointing read. I couldn't get into the storytelling in this book despite going through the paragraphs repeatedly which just didn't feel intellectually and emotionally engaging enough. Whether it was the writing style or the way the mystery was moving along, essentially, I felt too disconnected with all the happenings in the book; there seems to be backstory that wasn't too fleshed out enough and a slew of name-dropping which made me confused amidst the developing relationship between Gates and Ana.

The potential of the intricate plot and the effort Jeanne Adams put in to get the details right should have been strengths of the book; instead, they were the novel's weakest points, detracting from the emotional intensity that should and could have been woven into the story's climax. In the end, waning interest simply skimming through the pages to get the 'gist' of the novel - which really shouldn't be the case for an edge-of-your-seat sort of thriller.

[Eva (TXBookjunkie) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out interesting enough, but then became blah by the latter third of the book. Ending got a bit complicated for me - all the names of the people/business involved in the mystery portion of the story made me feel like I needed a flowchart. Yes, the mystery ending made sense in a way, but I still felt a bit lost and slightly unsatisfied about it.

I also could not stand the talking during the sex scenes - I think it was the wording that annoyed me. There was actually "ahhh"-ing - by the guy.

[Pamela(AllHoney) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard one to review for me. There were aspects that I liked but also some that I disliked. The romance portion was a major disappointment for me. While I admit there is a definite romance happening it just didn't do anything for me like Ms Adams' previous books have. It lacked something but I'm not sure what. It started slow and was more focused on the solving of the crime. I didn't feel we really got to know our hero and heroine. There were twists and turns that didn't make much sense to me. I don't regret reading it, though, and I wll certainly continue reading this author.

[Kimberly Kincaid]

I picked this up as required reading for a workshop I'm taking, and was happy to discover it was a good read! I don't read a whole lot of romantic suspense, although I'm an avid romance reader, so this was a little fresh and different for me. I liked both Ana and Gates-- they were both very realistic characters with believable flaws and pasts that made them very cautious. They were very well-matched. I also really liked Dav and Pretzky as secondary characters. The balance between plot and romantic arc was also very well done. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book!

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. Looking forward to re-reading this one. Gates and Ana are a very schmexy couple. The chemistry between them sizzles. Well written suspense story. Enjoyed all of the characters here. Very entertaining read - this book would make a great movie. Action, suspense, romance, great cast of characters. Can't wait to see what the next endeavor by Jeanne Adams is like.

[Rachael · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started reading this book on my Kindle, without having seen the cover. An embarrassing mistake...I thought I was reading a mystery/suspense novel but the focus is definitely on the "relationship" instead. I'm halfway through the book and I can't bring myself to read another word. Poor writing, scattershot storyline, etc and so forth. I'm over it.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an absolutely enjoyable book. The characters are not too geeky and Ms. Adams did not go into full geek mode descriptions when they were working the computer scans they needed to run. The crime is convoluted, suspenseful and keeps you trying to figure it out. The ending was shocking. Truly shocking but loved it. That was a really good cover up.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading new authors who will be at Coastal Magic Con. I’m not sure if I’ll read any more in the series.

Things I liked:
Tech savvy FMC
The first part of the book before they hooked up
The dress designer

Things I didn’t like:
It went insta-love very quickly
The plot was so convoluted
We needed more interaction between the FMC and her friend

[JoAnn Ainsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cold case and present-day crime collide. Enjoyed the plot. The romance was weaker with the heroine seemingly unable to accept the hero’s declarations of love, even though the reader saw it right away. Fast paced, especially at the beginning and the end.

[Eve Woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read. Not sure about some of the other reviews. For example not knowing why the woman was after Gates' family - woman scorned, which was stated. Not going into more details. Enjoyed the characters too.

[Mohd Nordin Che Omar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful CIA Agent assigned to cold cases met a Handsome and Masculine Private Bodyguard to solve stolen art and five brutal murders. If you like the romance part, go straight to page 174-184. Not a bad ending mirroring NCIS. Action Thriller mixed with romance. He he.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW This is an awesome book fantastic from start to finish edge of your seat suspense and the romance is fantastic what a hero and heroin
I loved this book

[HJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

reread 2/2015

[John Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book for a romance/mystery novel, but there were still enough wtf moments in there to make me not be totally immersed in the story.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

CIA (brainy moments) and Gates (steamy moments) ROCKS this book! :)