Into the Fire

If you've met Mike Romeo in Romeo's Rules, you know how politics and Mike Romeo would never be said in the same breath or even in the same room. Until a good man is getting trashed by his opponent and the slick guy who manages the good guy's campaign is willing to pay Mike actual money to go undercover in the opponent's campaign lair to find out who's responsible for starting the devastating and untrue rumor, and since this happens to appeal to Mike's sense of justice – or injustice as it turns out – he agrees to do it. So off he goes to San Francisco believably posing as a man seeking employment as security.

As is often the case with Romeo, his intellect fascinates but his brawn is what eventually gets the job done and inevitably not before there are dead bodies, missing persons, and mysterious puzzles leading to dead ends. Finding there are moments when one of the opposition's attractive campaign people begins to crack his hardened shell and produces an almost normal feeling, he knows it will be fleeting when all is said and done. Rooting out who's responsible for the hit job on the candidate he left in Los Angeles proves to be complex and deadly.

Once again, James Scott Bell uses impeccable wit, intimate pain, a disguised tenderness, and real toughness to show more sides of Mike Romeo. His life and times are definitely complicated, but he's stubborn and caring enough to see the most difficult situations through to their bittersweet ends.

I appreciate the growing display of the inner workings and personal demons of Mike Romeo's character. Another smart and clever story with a fascinating protagonist.

Father, please continue to bless Jim and keep inspiring him with the stories you have just for him to write. Watch over him, Lord. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.