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Contemporary Romance, Thrillers, Crime Fiction, Other Mystery Categories
Play Nice by Gemma Halliday — book cover

Play Nice

by Gemma Halliday
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Overview

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Gemma Halliday, comes Play Nice, her most thrilling novel yet! She faked her death to escape life as an assassin. But now her enemies have tracked her down, and this time they want her to stay dead. Anya Danielovich was an assassin in her former life. But that was a long time ago. Today she’s just Anna Smith—a single, thirtysomething woman living in San Francisco with a simple desire to lead a better life. But she’s still haunted by her past—the people she killed, the mentor she betrayed, the woman she was. She’s taken care to cover her tracks, but she’s beginning to feel like she’s being watched… Nick Dade is a hired gunman—the best of the best. He’s read Anya’s file and, after weeks of surveillance, he’s ready to pull the trigger…until someone else beats him to the punch. With his agenda shattered, Nick suddenly finds himself thrown together with the woman he’s been sent to eliminate. Who is she really? Who hired the second hit? And who can he trust? Together Nick and Anna find themselves embroiled in a web of deceit and desire as an unknown enemy closes in. To unravel the truth, Anna must face her past even if that means risking both Nick’s life and her own.

About the Author, Gemma Halliday

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Gemma Halliday is the award winning author of the High Heels mysteries, the Hollywood Headlines mystery, and the Deadly Cool series of young adult books.  Throughout her career, she’s been the recipient of numerous writing awards, including three RITA nominations and a National Readers’ Choice Award.   She currently makes her home in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is hard at work on her next book.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Known for cozier romantic suspense, Halliday (Hollywood Confessions) shifts gears with this exciting first in a thriller series replete with hit men, high-speed chases, and international crime. Trained as an assassin for the KOS (the former Yugoslavian intelligence agency) in Kosovo as a very young girl, Anya Danielovich has since moved to San Francisco and remade herself into Anna Smith, though she’s always looking over her shoulder. Bullets start to fly when hired gun Nick Dade trains his rifle on her, but someone else starts shooting seconds earlier. From then on, Anna works with Nick to unmask the men and the reasons behind the multiple contracts on her life while she wonders if she has any reason to trust Nick. Anna’s dog, Lenny, provides some relief from the mayhem. A few plot holes and a highly far-fetched reason behind one of the contracts do nothing to spoil the fun. Agent: Holly Root, the Waxman Agency. (Mar.)

From the Publisher

“Halliday’s opening installment of her new mystery series will leave you breathless and anxious for the next. . . . you’re in for a high-octane read that’s as fun as it is fast.”—Linda Castillo, New York Times bestselling author of Pray for Silence

Play Nice is captivating from start to finish. Every book Gemma Halliday writes is a keeper!”—Brenda Novak, New York Times bestselling author of Trust Me

"Play Nice starts with a bang and doesn't let up. The action is gripping and the characters are compelling. Anna is quite an interesting dark figure, but it's really Nick who stands out. Halliday has created characters who definitely are strong enough to withstand a long series."—RT Book Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

A former assassin can't seem to hide from her past. Anna Smith's life is boring. She works at the Golden Gate Animal Shelter, then comes home to her dog Lenny. It's a good thing that Lenny is such great company, because Anna has no friends or family, not even any visitors into her quiet life. No one would guess that this quiet vegetarian loner was once Anya Danielovich, assassin for hire. Raised and trained by Goren Petrovich of the KOS, Anna gave up the life with her kill of General Fedorov years earlier. She's been living under the radar, or so she thought, until she and her co-worker Shelli are shot at during what up until then was a perfectly normal day at work. Nick Dade, who's been tailing Anna and seen the shooter take aim, isn't quite sure what to think. Technically, he's been hired to kill Anna, but something stopped him from pulling the trigger first. Now he feels an obscure duty to find out who did, even though it means teaming up with Anna. Not that he feels any way about her personally; he's just trying to do his job. Anna has her doubts about working with Nick, too, especially since she isn't armed. But she doesn't have much of a choice if she wants to figure out who's uncovered her secret. The unlikely pair's investigation leads Anna to question her past and ponder whether she can ever really leave it behind. Halliday (Deadly Cool, 2011, etc.) combines investigation with the inevitable romance for a mystery that's enjoyably by the book.

Book Details

Published
March 13, 2012
Publisher
St. Martin's Press
Pages
272
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780312656072

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