Dead Heat (Partners in Crime #3)

Dead Heat by Jacey Ford is the third book in her Partners in Crime series - three ex-FBI agents who start their own security firm.

Daphne Donovan has been able to find people all of her life. She was even a specialist at in the FBI. Now that she is with Partners in Crime, she takes the cases where someone is missing. In her latest case though she is hired to find out if a bank exec's girlfriend is cheating on him.

She would not have even taken the job if her company didn't need the money. What she really wants to do is stay in Manhattan near ground zero. After tracking a suspect whom her bosses at the FBI would not let her arrest, she was on a flight to catch him when he high jacked a plane and flew it into the Trade Center. That was the day she no only quit the FBI but started to blame herself for not stopping the terrorist attack.

While on assignment in Florida she will have a chance to find another dangerous person - something not expected from a case of following a cheating partner. She will also meet a man she cannot intimidate, one who understands how she feels about 9/11 and she will have an opportunity to being the healing process - if she doesn't talk herself out of it.

Ford's three books are good reads, but this volume of the series is by far the best. The complexity of the plot, especially when it is set up as a simple case, captures readers and makes them stay up way past their bedtimes. The only thing I find odd about her books is that she never describes what her characters look like - I can understand wanting to leave some up to the reader's imagination, but I have no idea what Daphne Donovan looks like except her hair and eye color. That being said it is still well worth the time to read this book.

Ford, Jacey. (2006). Dead Heat. New York: Berkeley Sensation.

I Spy (Partners in Crime #2)

I Spy by Jacey Ford is the second book in the Partners in Crime series – three ex-FBI agents who have set up their own security firm.

Aimee Devlin has gone undercover in the aeronautics industry. McConnell Aerospace is developing a new propulsion system that would allow a fighter jet to travel around the globe in about an hour and a half. McConnell hired Devlin to find a corporate spy.

The first employee she tracks – Race Gardner – turns out to be with the CIA. The CIA thinks that the spy is not from another aerospace company, but a foreign arms dealer. Together, Aimee and Race, will track the plans from the company, through the thief, to the buyer, and ultimately to the arms dealer.

When Aimee goes undercover she is taking her life in her own hands. She will have to use every skill she learned with the FBI, as well as some of her natural charms, to convince Nic Sabre not to kill her. If she can succeed, it is possible that the dealer along with many of his buyers will be taken down. If not, she will never get to know the man with whom she is starting to fall in love.

Ford (a pseudonym for Beverly Brandt) is a master of taking characters worlds away from each other and having their stories seamlessly come together.

Ford, Jacey. (2005). I Spy. New York: Berkeley Sensation

Dangerous Curves (Partners in Crime #1)

Dangerous Curves by Jacey Ford is the first book in her Partners in Crime series featuring three ex-FBI agents who open their own security firm.

Raine Robey is trying to get back on her feet after being driven out of the FBI when she was investigated for the murder of a suspect. Her own boyfriend, Calder, chose protecting his career over helping clear her name. One year later, her security firm has just signed its first contract.

Raine will be working for Calder on a case that the FBI does not have enough evidence to follow. Calder's hope is the case is going nowhere but that it will give Raine a chance to get her business on it feet - while keeping her out of danger.

His plan backfires - in a twisted plot that seamlessly bring together about four stories - Raine finds herself in the middle of a situation that will use all of the skills she learned as an FBI agent and some of the skills she learned from her father - an alleged famous jewel thief.

Ford creates a story with plot lines that readers will not see connecting until the author reveals the twist. Though I would have like a bit more character development early on in the story, by the end of the book I was a Jacey Ford fan.

Ford, Jacey. (2004). Dangerous Curves. New York: Berkeley Sensation.