LynneC’s review of Inside (Bulletproof Series, Book 1) by Brenda Novak
Romantic Suspense published by Mira 28 Jun 11
I had this book to keep me company on a long, loooong airplane journey and it ate up a nice bunch of hours. After a shaky start I found the story totally absorbing, the characters believable and engaging.
I wouldn’t call this romantic suspense, more a straight thriller with a romance, but don’t let that put you off because this is one great read.
Peyton Adams is a deputy at one of the biggest high security prisons in the US. She is asked, or rather given no choice, to help with an operation to discover which member of a gang killed a judge, and to do that, they are going to put an ex-con undercover.
We first meet Virgil Skinner under his fake name of Simeon Bennett. He has just been exonerated from a crime for which he served sixteen years, but he’s not home free with his release because he killed two men in the prison. He was a member of a gang, but not the gang they want him to go inside to finger.
The romance is hot, hard and fast, and probably the weakest point of the story. There is little development, it just is. They meet, sleep together and they are in love. But with so many other things going on, there isn’t the room to develop a full-bodied romance.
Novak handles the complex storyline with a masterful hand. Different characters who may not know each other interact and do things that affect everyone else in the story. There’s no big “tada!” moment, which can put a story off balance, there is just a relentless progression.
There are numerous points of view too, something not found in the regular romance and I felt that a few of them weren’t really needed, and it might have helped the suspense if they were left out, but Novak’s delineation of character is fine and beautifully done. If that’s the way she needs to tell the story, that’s okay by me.
I enjoyed it, and read breathlessly to the end. Novak says she got the idea for this story after watching Prison Break. I don’t know how accurate it is, but it seemed authentic to me, and she sustains her world so that I believe in the danger threatening the two main characters. The only jarring point is the dearth of curse words. I don’t believe that cons and ex cons don’t use fuck on a more regular basis, but in this story it’s only used in relation to the sex act.
I’ll be looking for the next story in the series, if there is one, because this is an engrossing and well-written book.
Note: I got this book as an ARC from netgalley.
Grade: A
Summary:
Book 1 of the Bulletproof Series
Virgil Skinner served fourteen years for a murder he didn’t commit. He’s finally been exonerated, but he can’t escape the gang he joined in order to survive. They’ll do anything to keep him from telling what he knows. And if they can’t get to Virgil they’ll go after his sister and her kids.
The California Department of Corrections needs someone to infiltrate another gang, one that’s taking control of the state’s most notorious supermax. Virgil’s the perfect candidate — and he’ll do it in exchange for his sister’s protection.
Assistant deputy warden Peyton Adams is opposed to having Virgil in her prison. How will she protect him if things go bad? Besides, she’s attracted to him; she might even be falling in love with him. That makes her all the more desperate to keep him safe — and it gives him someone else to lose.
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
November 2011
