Threat : Hugh Fraser

Threat: Hugh Fraser

On the outside Rina Walker might look like any other person but underneath she is a paid, coldblooded killer who enjoys what she does and shows not a bit of any remorse. The killings are what keeps her in the style of life she wants enabling her to provide for herself and your 14-year-old sister, Georgie. But, with Rina comes her partner and lover Lizzie who are at the center of this novel once again. From the author of Harm comes Threat where Rina now will deal with gangs in London, find herself being hired to murder those that are part of her assignments and now has been enlisted to work for M16 as an undercover agent. Having killed someone and being found out she has not choice but to comply. She is tough, brash, hardnosed and often underhanded and seedy. Smart and able to murder someone and leave hardly if any traces of herself she is someone who lives on the edge and loves it. But, when M16 wants to find out just how strong her mettle really is they take her sister captive and what she does will let readers know not to mess with Rina Walker. The time period is the 60’s in London and the tension is highly volatile as Rina takes on the underworld of crime. She is 20 years old and a hired assassin. Rina has attitude, spunk and fire as she is hired by Tony Farina who is Soho’s vice king to find the missing girls that have been working at some of his clubs. As Rina takes on his job and then more you can feel the tension, see the graphic and vivid descriptions that the author created as the climate is quite seedy, the furniture nailed to the floor and the clients anything but reputable.

As Rina becomes involved in both assignments she finds herself looking at the man she is supposed to watch and finds another with the dead bodies and enjoying himself with them as if they were alive. Added in she next does surveillance on him again the end result is someone else gets clocked. Georgie is now going off to school and if she confronts the killer will the body count continue to rise? Each chapter is more violent than the one before and the vivid descriptions, Rina’s voice and her moods are creatively depicted allowing the reader to go along with her as she takes out her foes. With money given to her and loving what she does will she ever crash and burn? Taking Georgie out of the mix, sending her to a boarding school for girls, getting her fitted and her equipment might take away some of the tension she faces but not until a German man named Heinz is dealt with and a Russian double agent. He’s a KGB Nazi war criminal and shows no remorse and his encounter with Rina allows readers to know that she is almost vulnerable to attack but never misses to fight back. You definitely want her on your side. The killer’s connections are widespread and not those you would expect. Fulfilling contracts puts others in danger including her sister and Lizzie. Someone goes into Lizzie’s apartment and leaves a dead body. Why? Working for M16 and watching this sick aristocratic man enjoy himself with dead bodies lest you know that this is not an ordinary mystery thriller. Rina is a survivalist and makes no excuses for her behavior. She is on call 24/7 and cannot turn down an assignment knowing that both sides have her dead to rights for murders and she might face the police at some time.

Things spiral out of control as Georgie makes her way to her new school and Rina has to find a way to keep her other job from Nick who is her handler and requires her services too. Tony Farina expects results and finding Heinz and dealing with him should be her first priority but she is a free spirit and Lizzie and Rina need time to you might say chill out for short periods in order to regroup. But, when Lizzie goes to help a young girl being abused in a bar, Rina is not happy.

While going on assignment she learns that her sister is in trouble for attacking another student but the student attacked her verbally first and made her feel unworthy of being in the school along with other students. One phone call fixed it for now as Rina would face off with a deadly killer, learn that the double agent was on the wrong side and what happens to her makes you wonder just how far she will go to get her mark and what happens when she too becomes a victim.

Deceits, lies, betrayals, traitors that you never expect as Rina is now on the radar of more than one killer but will she be able to survive? What about her sister and the bullying in her school? A threat according to Dictionary.com is a “Declaration of an intention or determination to inflict punishment, injury or retaliation for, or conditionally upon, some action of course or menace. It can also mean as in this case too a person or thing likely to cause damage or danger. Throughout the novel Rina faces numerable threats and dangers from situations that she finds herself in, needs to be bailed out of and people that she thought she could trust but realizes that are not who they appear to be. Threat: Just where will the final one come from and who will it be? When Greta saves her life and relates just who the traitor is and that Olga the girl she traveled with was not a traitor, she has to think long and hard about her next move but not before spending time with Lizzie and finding herself in a convent hoping to find some peace and refuge.

An ending that is quite dramatic and the final body count has yet to be tallied as Rina finds herself facing another adversary hoping that this will buy her way out of more trouble and get a traitor behind bars. But, not everyone is what they seem and the ending will let readers know that Rina’s fate has yet to be decided and finding her way back home might not safe her from another THREAT! Smart, impetuous, dangerous and yet able to find her way out of most dangerous situations only author Hugh Fraser knows what’s next for her and what her next assignment will be? Missing girls, a sister who might be in danger at school, friendships torn apart, trust misplaced and one 20 year old girl named Rina who seems like she is always in an endless fight to ward off a Threat!

Fran Lewis: Just reviews: MJ Magazine