Tag Team Review No. 7: Cindy Gerard's Take No Prisoners

Jeanne Bogino and Julianne J. Smith -- Library Journal, 10/13/2008

Full disclosure: in the late 1980s, this Book Review editor read a slew of bodice rippers for her young adult amusement. Oh, how the romance genre has evolved since those days of simpler titillation. In the 21st century, readers can get milky-white thighs crossed with Jason Bourne–esque espionage. Cindy Gerard’s Take No Prisoners (S. & S., November) makes a good follow-up to Oscar Hijuelos's Dark Dude for that very reason. It's a romance that dares rise above the old school corsets and lace, and as such, it deserves a bloody spine removal.—Heather McCormack

Contender No. 1: New Lebanon Library (NY) director Jeanne Bogino, an exemplary Xpress Reviewer of literary and popular fiction, previously pounded the Hades out of Andre Dubus III’s 9/11-themed The Garden of Last Days. Romance, as she reveals, has never been her passion, but that didn’t stop her from unleashing the full strength of her book-drop-honed muscles on what will probably become another New York Times best seller.

Romantic suspense is not my favorite genre. It has been my experience that when books are pitched as "romantic suspense," the plot usually involves a heist, a case of international espionage, or an abduction. The romantic component is represented by a gorgeous, gutsy heroine who has relationship issues and a handsome, mysterious hero with a tragic past. The two meet, experience the instant, "electric" attraction, and embark on a passionate affair while dodging bad guys and bullets. Making matters worse, the story is often bogged down with spy-world verbiage.

When I received Take No Prisoners, I suppressed a groan. It was all of the above. The hero, Sam Lang, is an ex-Delta force sniper. He’s tried to escape his violent past, but now he’s got a chance to bring down the underworld kingpin responsible for the murder of his sister and, according to Sam’s intel, beautiful blackjack dealer Abbie Hughes is the key. Abbie’s brother, Cory, a mule in the kingpin’s organization, is mixed up in a diamond-smuggling caper, which leads to his abduction by the kingpin’s henchmen. When Abbie plunges into the Honduras backcountry to find her brother, Sam is hot on her trail in more ways than one. To save Cory and themselves, Abbie and Sam must trust each other enough to join forces, or all will die.

Sound formulaic? It is, but Cindy Gerard’s sharp prose elevates this book above something more than a run-of-the-mill heist caper. While there are plenty of goons and gunfire, Gerard concocts a spicy, stirring romance between two appealing characters for whom I couldn’t help but root. I found myself racing through the pages, nearly as captivated by the action-packed story set against the casinos of Las Vegas and the jungles of Honduras as I was by the sizzling romance developing between Sam and Abbie.

While a terrific love story, Take No Prisoners still contains enough chase scenes, snipers, and twists and turns to satisfy the most adrenaline-addicted action junkie. It’s legit. Really.

Contender No. 2: Julianne J. Smith first faced off with Jenny Block’s eyebrow-raising memoir, Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage. As in that match, the Ypsilanti District librarian known for her incisive parenting book reviews displays a cold-blooded focus for book terror, not to mention a knack for visual theater (check out her photo). Give her your tired, your weary plot lines and characters, and she’ll tear them to pieces.

My five-year-old twins are starting to read, and this makes for an exciting time in my home. They are especially fond of Dr. Seuss and other rhyming books because they are able to anticipate what comes next, which instills in them great confidence and exuberance. Readers, however, eventually trade up the triumph of recognition for the thrill of the unexpected. And while genre fiction obviously contains elements of predictability, those elements are best seen in subject, not plot. Knowing half-way through a book how it will end makes me feel like I was cheated. That was my main problem with Cindy Gerard’s Take No Prisoners.

An ex-sniper, a blackjack dealer, a moronic younger brother, and two Honduran jewel thieves are swirled together in this predictable second entry in the best-selling author's "Black Ops" series (after Show No Mercy). Abbie Hughes, divorced from her cheating ex, works as a blackjack dealer in Vegas when she isn’t in accounting school or hanging with BFF Crystal. Down on men, defensive, and protective, Abbie worries about her dyslexic younger brother, Cory, who is notorious for his poor decision making and currently dabbling in "fringe" activities overseas. Not suspecting anything, she allows him to have boxes sent to her from Honduras.

Enter Sam Lang, ex-Delta Force with a Wrangler butt, a hardened man consumed by guilt over the death of his sister who was killed by a car bomb meant as a warning to him. Sam works for the Black Ops, a covert band of snipers who move under the radar, doing inside jobs on international terrorists and other thugs that the government wants gone. Their latest assignment is the capture of the elusive Fredrick Nader, an arms dealer, drug trafficker, jewel thief, murderer, and all-around international menace.

Nader’s latest plan is to steal the Honduran Tupacka diamonds. But Nader isn’t the only international menace interested in the loot. Longtime rival Desmond Fox just might have a thing or two to say about the diamonds leaving Honduras. And bummer for Nader that there is a low-level mule on the inside who just might be willing to work with Fox to get a cut. Before the deal goes down, however, Cory gets mixed up with the mule, and the mule promptly gets himself killed. From here, it doesn’t take the Black Ops long to track down Abbie as a likely conspirator.

When Abbie is dealing cards at the casino, hunky Sam takes a seat and enjoys a nice long look, planning on using romance to put the squeeze on Abbie. The problem is that their chemistry is instant, and it is only days later that the orgasms are simultaneous. Meanwhile, outside of the bedroom and back in Honduras, Cory gets captured and loses a finger to his jailers. Emails to Abbie follow. Nader needs Abbie to get the diamonds, Sam needs Abbie to get to Nader, and Abbie needs Sam and the Black Ops to rescue Cory.

While the plot has potential, it elicits some serious eye rolls. For instance, when the SUV that belongs to the Black Ops is buried in mud in Honduras, they just so happen to have enough cash and luck to find a farmer willing to trade his six—count them—horses, complete with saddles and ponchos so that they can hide their artillery, the quantities of which are enough to take out a small nation, thus taking Nader’s compound by cavalry. When all is said and done, Cory escapes federal prosecution vis-à-vis an insider job with the Department of Justice.

If the unrealistic plot won’t grate readers, the clichés of the language and scenarios will (e.g., Abbie wears a dress that "made her waist look small, her boobs look big, and her legs look a million miles long"). Or when our buff military hero, while shampooing Abbie in a waterfall, becomes "wholly mystified by the texture and weight of her hair." Some of the writing is downright hilarious: after hot, sexy sex, Abbie "slides boneless" to the bed beside her lover man.

Needless to say, as we might expect from romantic suspense, the bad guys get theirs, the jewels are returned to the safe, and Sam and Abbie get married after discovering that Abbie is knocked up from that not-so-innocent little hair-washing scene in Honduras. This is the kind of book you buy in an airport and instantly forget (or else leave on the plane intentionally). Gerard has her readers, however, so you’ll probably want to buy it. It will undoubtedly circulate well.