Government Assassins Take Deadly Aim in Iris Johansen’s Thriller Dead Aim

Johansen’s latest thriller begins at Arapahoe Dam, the site of a destructive mudslide that has buried an entire town. At the site, we find photojournalist Alex Graham, her friend Sarah Logan, and Sarah’s search and rescue dog, Monty. Alex who specializes in taking pictures of disasters, accidents and terrorist attacks sets off the action when she goes to the other side of the dam in order to get an aerial shot and a different prospective on the catastrophe. While there, Alex unknowingly witnesses an event that leaves her shocked as she overhears a conversation between the conspirators who caused the collapse and then sees them shoot a helicopter that from the sky. Her verbal reaction to the helicopter going up in flames ignites a full-fledged manhunt by the conspirators to silence her while an equally determined group attempts to protect her from the terrorists and herself. During one of these efforts to protect her, Alex’s friend Sarah is wounded. This is unacceptable to Sarah’s adoring husband, John Logan a billionaire with political connections, who will do anything to protect her, including kidnapping Alex to keep her safe. To ensure Alex’s safety, John hires Galen, a government operative, who in turn contacts Judd Morgan, a former military assassin who’s been setup by sinister forces within the CIA and is therefore deep underground. Judd’s interest in protecting Alex is never fully explained but once she convinces him that the dam collapse was a deliberate act, and that more sites are slated to be destroyed the two team up to learn the identities of the conspirators. They are then to learn that the conspirators have deep ties to sinister forces within both the FBI and the CIA, as well as, to an assassin named Runne. As the conspiracy unfolds there are chases and narrow escapes aplenty one that even includes saving the president from violent mayhem.

While a wonderful read, I was slightly disappointed that Ms Johansen didn’t allow us to experience the action when Morgan finally ran the evil Runne to ground. However, given the rest of the story it was only a minor difficulty. One thing that will be somewhat confusing to other readers however, as it was to me, was that considering the vast resources available to Homeland Security, the CIA, the FBI, and a well trained North Korean assassin why was it so difficult to track down one untrained woman.

Overall, I thought that the plot about conspiracy, terrorists and government was fast paced and well done. Johansen also cannily, touches on timely situations, touching off our paranoia about personal rights, power, and freedom. She also keeps the reader involved by never letting her dynamic duo, or the plot, settle into one place too long. The dialogue flows, the action hums, and the pages turn quickly in this thriller that’s a good portrayal of what could happen if someone in the government took their knowledge and chose to use it towards their own ends.

Dead Aim is a fantastic action thriller that brings back beloved characters from other books written by the author. The respective vulnerability of both the hero and the heroine rings true and endears themselves to the readers but what is really exciting is how they travel different roads to take them to the same point. Iris Johansen can indeed write thriller masterpieces and this is a must read for those who enjoy the romantic mystery genre. [tags]Dead Aim, book review, Iris Johansen, mystery, romance, romantic mystery, action, thriller, FBI, assassins, CIA, sabotage, assassination attempt, Search and Rescue, fiction[/tags]