Fatal Exchange ~ Review

Fatal Exchange
Southern Crimes 2
By Lisa Harris

Though Emily Hunt has never wanted to be a cop, her life is full of them.  Her father, her sister, her late brother, and her ex-fiance.  The life of a cop is too intense and the constant threats are more than she thinks she can handle.  Today is about to find out if what she always supposed is true.

Mason Taylor was Michael Hunt's best friend and he's had feelings for Michael's little sister from the moment he met her.  But when Michael was murdered Mason became the lead suspect in the opinion of Avery, Michael's other sister.  Today Mason is about to become Emily's lifeline when a situation puts her in harms way.

Rafael's beating the odds.  He's making the grades, keeping out of trouble, and going to college until today. His brother is being held for ransom and time is running out to find the money being demanded.  Today is the day that will determine the rest of Rafael's life.

Rafael is desperate to find the money to save his brother's life, desperate enough to take his classroom hostage and demand the money he needs.  But is he desperate enough to carry out his threats to shoot and kill his classmates?  Emily's had training for situations like this, but when a student actually takes the class hostage a teacher has to deal with not only their own fears but those of all her students.  Can she talk Rafael down and diffuse the situation?

Something is wrong and there is more than meets the eye in Fatal Exchange and someone won't be walking away from this one.  The main story takes place over one day and  it packs a lot of intensity into what is an tense and potentially explosive situation.

Fatal Exchange focuses on family and the importance of one's family in one's life.  Emily's had a loving supportive family all her life.  While Mason's family lacked greatly and he is dealing with the issue of his father's absence.  If your family was in trouble what would you do?  This is the issue facing Emily, Mason, and Rafael and there is no simple answer.  Would you take a life to save your family?

This is the second book in the Southern Crimes series and while Avery and Jackson are in this book they aren't the central figures as they were in book one Dangerous Passage.  But Fatal Exchange does not lack in the suspense department and it is nice to get to know another member of the Hunt family and to learn more about the man Avery blames for her brother's death.

If you like a good clean book, you will love this romantic suspense from Lisa Harris.  And this will be a book you won't want to put down.  This is the kind of book you'll stay up into the early morning hours just to finish it, which I did.  And you may be tempted to bring to a birthday party to read while the presents are being opened (which doesn't work to well if you are the present opener!).

I was provided a copy of this book by Revell in exchange for my honest review.


About the Book:

Desperate times create desperate people. And desperate people are dangerous . . . 

Though Emily Hunt comes from a family of cops, the relatively quiet life of a high school teacher suits her just fine. She's saving up to buy a house, slowly moving forward after her brother's death, and settling into a life she loves. So the last person she wants to spend time with is Mason Taylor.

An undercover cop, Mason is enemy number one as far as her family is concerned. His involvement in the death of Emily's brother is still up in the air, and now he expects her to help him with a case. Mason has been working with one of her students, Rafael Cerda, whose brother has been kidnapped by a drug cartel. And with time running out to meet their demands, Rafael is getting desperate.

Emily will have to draw on all of her strength to handle what happens next . . .