Overview
When history professor Alison Carter became a consultant to the film version of the Wild West legend she’d dedicated her career to researching, she couldn’t possibly have known that she would not only get a front-row seat to a full-blown Hollywood circus but would innocently witness something that would put her life in peril. Nor did she expect that a tall stranger in a cowboy hat would turn the movie — and her world — completely upside down.
A. J. Gallagher didn’t crash the set in dusty Arizona to rub elbows with Hollywood’s elite. Unable to ignore ghosts from the past that refuse to stay buried, A.J. came to put an end to the false legend that has tarnished the reputation of his family. But when he confronts Alison, sparks fly. And when Alison is targeted by ruthless criminals, suddenly she and A.J. must face the intense attraction that threatens to consume them—and survive the danger that threatens their very lives.
“[Brockmann] is one of the superstars of romantic suspense.” — The Dallas Morning News
Synopsis
In her first paperback original in more than six years, New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann delivers an unforgettable novel of contemporary romance and thrilling suspense.
When history professor Alison Carter became a consultant to the film version of the Wild West legend she’d dedicated her career to researching, she couldn’t possibly have known that she would not only get a front-row seat to a full-blown Hollywood circus but would innocently witness something that would put her life in peril. Nor did she expect that a tall stranger in a cowboy hat would turn the movie—and her world—completely upside down.
A. J. Gallagher didn’t crash the set in dusty Arizona to rub elbows with Hollywood’s elite. Unable to ignore ghosts from the past that refuse to stay buried, A. J. came to put an end to the false legend that has tarnished the reputation of his family. But when he confronts Alison, sparks fly. And when Alison is targeted by ruthless criminals, suddenly she and A .J. must face the intense attraction that threatens to consume them—and survive the danger that threatens their very lives.
Publishers Weekly
Veteran A.J. Gallagher suffers PTSD from the first Gulf War, leading to "lost years" of homelessness and alcoholism before he pulls his life together. Historian Alison Carter, daughter of an alcoholic, spends a decade writing about the gunfight in which Arizona marshal Silas Quinn shot notorious outlaw James "Kid" Gallagher, who had kidnapped and killed Silas's beloved wife, Melody. Then James Gallagher's ghost appears to A.J., his great-grandson, and asks him to get Alison to set the record straight: Silas was corrupt and abusive, and Melody and James ran off to a long, happy life in Alaska. A.J. and Alison are well-developed, damaged souls who begin their achingly beautiful romance with a big secret between them: how can he tell her his primary source is a ghost? Brockmann's only error is including a heavy-handed suspense plot that bogs down the otherwise beautifully layered story. (Aug.)