Blink of an Eye
“Guaranteed to please fans of the series, Blink of an Eye reminds us why both Johansens have such a devoted following.”
New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen and her son Edgar Award winner Roy Johansen team up again for the eighth installment of the Kendra Michaels Series.
Kendra Michaels works as a consultant for the FBI. For 20 years, Kendra was blind, but an innovative surgery returned her sight.
Now that she’s regained her vision, Kendra has remarkable powers of observation. Not only does she see things most people don’t, but her other senses are heightened as well.
“Kendra closed her eyes. Detach. Concentrate. The smells. Cologne, perfumes, body odors from the sweaty dancers . . . and something else.”
Like a modern-day Sherlock, she can read a person, situation, or place with an almost supernatural ability, providing clues for the investigative team that others miss. Previous scenarios have shown her mettle, but this time around the case is personal.
Delilah Winters, a young pop superstar, disappears during her performance at the Hollywood Bowl. One minute she’s holding “the eighteen thousand audience members in her thrall, putting on a spectacular show” and the next she vanishes backstage, never returning for her encore.
Kendra and long-time friend Jessie Mercado, Delilah’s former bodyguard and military hero, are both present in the audience. Determined to find the missing pop star, they team up to create an unstoppable force.
Complicating matters for Kendra is the return of black ops expert Adam Lynch. Kendra and Lynch have a chaotic relationship, made harder because he travels extensively for work, which often puts him out of communication for long periods of time. As Kendra describes him to her assistant, “‘The Justice Department wanted him to save the world and he was sent somewhere in Tibet to do it. I haven’t heard from him since he left last week.’”
A true alpha male, Lynch returns from Tibet and appears on the scene at the behest of the Director of the FBI. The public nature of a superstar kidnapping brought in the Justice Department and their expert on ransom delivery.
But a simple ransom would be too pedestrian for two masters of the thriller genre, so the plot soon develops into something more nefarious. And the stakes rise when the first ransom drop fails, and the kidnappers request Jessie Mercado do the next drop.
Add in a congressman wanting answers and a dating-site billionaire—who just happens to be Delilah’s ex—putting up the ransom, and the media circus continues to grow.
Told in multiple points of view, the book allows readers to see events from Kendra’s, Jessie’s, and Lynch’s perspective, not to mention scenes from the kidnap victim herself.
The novel functions as a standalone, however, readers new to the series may want to start with book one. The authors provide enough exposition to follow the dynamics of the characters, but some prior knowledge of events and relationships would make this a more satisfying read.
Guaranteed to please fans of the series, Blink of an Eye reminds us why both Johansens have such a devoted following.