Subterfuge and Political Motivation Lie Behind a Body of Lies by Iris Johansen

Iris Johansen’s Body of Lies may not be her best offering but it is a fairly entertaining novel that is reminiscent of a cat and mouse game. The authoress uses a ticking time bomb type subplot to propel the action along and keeps the reader’s attention by portraying the victims and antagonists as real flesh and blood people. Her credible interpretation of a secret society within the world’s political power grid blends well with her use of a resourceful yet hardboiled British bodyguard, albeit one with a dubious background, whose sole job is to keep the protagonist safe. Add this to a corrupt senator who hopes to be the next president, a seemingly average reporter, who is more than he seems, and a skillful assassin, whose goal it is to prevent a new source of energy from entering the world scene, and you have a lot to hold your interest.

The main protagonist is Eve Duncan, a forensic sculptor, who began her present career to deal with the loss of her murdered seven-year-old daughter, Bonnie in the hopes that other murdered children could be returned to their families. She is currently in a loving relationship with Detective, Joe Quinn and together they are raising a precocious twelve-year-old, foster daughter, Jane. Despite this existing relationship, however, Jane is still consumed by her devotion to Bonnie who she believes was found and is buried on a hill near her home. Unfortunately for Joe, Eve discovers that he lied to her about the bones they had buried and the fact that they were not really Bonnies’. This begins Eve’s rationalization for leaving her family and taking on the challenge of sculpting the bones of an unknown victim in Louisiana, hundreds of miles away from their home.

The action begins almost immediately when on her first night in Louisiana someone tries to kill her to her from discovering the identity of the dead victim. While she manages to survive this attempt on her life Joe calls in Sean Galen to act as her bodyguard. However, as Galen soon finds out strong willed Eve doesn’t make it easy for him to protect her from the assassins who are determined to kill her. Fortunately, while discovering who the hired assassins are and why they are targeting Jane and the people around her, he manages with Joe’s help to outwit the evildoers.

The one negative is that I felt the author didn’t do Eve justice. She was portrayed as an immature, narcissist whose absorption with her dead daughter took precedence over the living people in her life while twelve-year-old Jane came off like a mature fifty-year-old woman. Another note I would make is that new readers should consider reading the first two books in the series before attempting this one or they will find the recurring characters somewhat puzzling.

Overall, I enjoy romantic thrillers so this one fit that bill especially when Eve was working on the recreation of the face. Unfortunately, while I did get tired of her judging Joe so harshly and felt that it bogged the story down to the point of reminding me of a soap opera Johansen’s colorful villains, wolves in sheep’s clothing, and the nefarious secret organization kept the pages turning. Like in life the story’s moral is be careful who you trust because not everything is as it seems. [tags]book review, fiction, thriller, mystery, romance, subterfuge, Body of Lies, Iris Johansen, forensic scuptor, murder, secret societies, Sean Galen, Louisiana, [/tags]