Of Lustbader's Linnear stories, this has been the best so far. I desperately grabbed onto the strong women Lustbader presented in this tale. It was amazing to me how much more I enjoyed the story once it contained heroines who do not have an obvious need to be saved from themselves. Lustbader's decision to take Linnear away from Asia and set some of the ninja-action in Venice was also a good one. Venice has that surreal quality that can tolerate just about any stretch of the imagination. In this book Lustbader off-handedly disposes of Justine. While a part of me was horrified at the decision, another part of me was surprised that he hadn't done it sooner. In the classic James-Bond-type story it doesn't pay to have the hero tied up in a monogamous relationship. Even though this book was easier to get sucked into than the previous Linnear novels, I probably will not continue with the series. I accidentally purchased this novel without realizing it was the fourth in a series. The whole point of reading up to this point was to have the context to read this novel.
