Standoff

by Sandra Brown

In this suspenseful thriller, a journalist who stumbles upon a deadly crime while pursuing the scoop of a lifetime will find her strength and conviction tested in new and frightening ways.

TV reporter Tiel McCoy is driving to New Mexico for a well-earned vacation when she hears the news on the radio: The teenage daughter of Forth Worth tycoon Russell Dendy has been kidnapped. Immediately, she ditches her holiday to chase down the story that could make her career.

But in a town called Rojo Flats, an innocuous stop at a convenience store thrusts her directly into the unfolding story -- and a dangerous crime drama. For inside the shop two desperate young lovers are holding a half dozen frightened hostages . . . and a powder keg of a standoff is about to test Tiel's courage, journalistic integrity, and everything she has ever believed.

• ISBN10: 0446527017
• ISBN13: 9780446527019
• Publish Date: 2 May 2000 (first published 1 May 2000)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 21 October 2002
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
• Imprint: Warner Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 217
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

This was more a novella than a usual Sandra Brown novel, and as such, was pretty blah. The story never fully develops beyond the actual standoff situation, and we’re never given a chance to really connect with our main characters. Brown also uses a main character combo (a successful tv reporter and the man she has mistakenly wronged) that she returns to in a later novel, Smoke Screen. We get the obligatory sexual tension between Tiel and Doc, followed by the obligatory sex scene, but it all feels very… obligatory. Step 1: Woman finds herself in life-threatening situation with mysterious, handsome man. Step 2: Woman and Man band together to escape situation and bring it to a happy ending. Step 3: Woman and Man have life-affirming sex to cope with traumatic situation. This could have been great if it had been written with the complexity you usually find in a Brown novel. Instead, it just left me wanting more.