PUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 2010

hiloh Blake had no intentions of following in her father’s footsteps.  His life as an undercover operative for the CIA had cost her mother her life and caused Shiloh neurological damage resulting in seizures.  After 15 years of strained relations with her father and a deep seated anger and distrust toward him, she trusted only her best friend and colleague, Khalid Khan.  However, during a routine underwater archaeological dive near Mumbai, Shiloh’s team was ambushed, throwing her into the middle of an international terrorist plot and into the life of CIA operative Reece Jaxon.  With Khalid seriously wounded by the attack, she had no one to rely on and was forced to decide whether to trust Reece and dive into the world of international espionage or try to survive by evading those pursuing her.  With an intriguing plot and pulse pounding action,Dead Reckoning is a great debut thriller for Ronie Kendig.

When I saw that Eric Wilson endorsed this novel, I figured the odds were pretty good that it was going to be fun and exciting to read.  Those suspicions were definitively confirmed.  Dead Reckoning was not only action packed, it had an engaging, entertaining storyline.  I immediately found myself not only caring about the outcome of the events, but also about the characters.  I enjoyed seeing their personalities developed and their actions propel the story forward.  This was a fun book to read and more than once, I found myself eager to finish my ‘work’ in order to return to the story.

The book started out very strong with some great opening scenes loaded with lots of action and tense suspense.  The middle of the book lost some momentum as it developed the romantic story line, but rebounded for a strong finish.  Thrillers are hard to keep going from start to finish, so the downtime was not completely expected.  However, a little less circular, self-doubting romance and it wouldn’t have felt quite so slow.

I mostly enjoyed the international terrorist storyline, but did at times have difficulty figuring out exactly what the plan was.  There seemed to be a few too many bits of information and allusions to things that might or did happen, without enough specifics.  Additionally, it felt at times as though the terrorist plot took a backseat to the developing romance, which was a bit frustrating.  Regardless, this book had a solid plot and even with the difficulty with cohesion and staying on track, was quite satisfying.

For a debut thriller, Dead Reckoning was well above average.  With this book Kendig demonstrated a talent for good characters, great action, and an engaging storyline.  It’ll be exciting to see how she continues to develop her skills in future novels.  This book is a great start to what looks to be a promising career.