Say No More: Volume 3 (Gravediggers, #3)

by Liliana Hart

Jonathan Todd Ross (Narrator) and Devra Woodward (Narrator)

Return to New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Liliana Hart's romantic suspense series, the Gravediggers, with this thrilling game of cat and mouse between a member of the Gravediggers and the brilliant woman hot on his heels.

The world thinks they're dead. The world is wrong.

Dante Malcolm is a man of refined tastes. He was once a part of Britain's Elite Intelligence Force, but there was a reason he'd never been able to capture Simon Locke, the notorious thief who always seemed to be one step ahead. That's because Dante and Simon were one and the same, until Dante's double life eventually caught up with him and now he belongs to the Gravediggers.

Liv Rothschild is a Detective Inspector with Interpol and is the one responsible for catching MI-6's most notorious agent in his final heist--except the heist killed him. But something has never felt right about his death, and it's haunted her for months. It was too easy, and Dante Malcolm was too smart to go down that way.

Dante might belong to the Gravediggers in body, but his heart and soul will always belong to the next job. The rest of the team doesn't know about his alter ego because he made sure the information went missing from his file. So when the job he's always waited for seems like a possibility, he sneaks out of the country like a thief in the night, only to run into the only woman who's ever been able to match him in wit--and passion--for the job. Except they're standing on opposite sides of the law--and only one of them can walk away with the prize.

• ISBN10: 1508243433
• ISBN13: 9781508243434
• Publish Date: 25 July 2017
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Format: Audiobook
• Duration: 7 hours and 39 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[kimbacaffeinate]

This story involves Dante Malcolm a former Britain Elite Intelligence Forces member, and the notorious Simone Locke, a notorious thief. Hart shares his history, and we learn how he and his partner, Eva Rothschild a Detective Inspector with Interpol worked to capture Locke. When his double life catches up with him, he agrees to fake his death and joins the Gravediggers leaving behind the only woman he has ever loved. Now, he is working a solo mission to retrieve highly sensitive information, and his path crosses those of Eva.

I loved getting the background stories on both Eva and Dante. Dante is British, and typically the accent alone is enough to make me swoon, but the man is arrogant and selfish. He wants to have his cake and eat it too. The nerve...lol I did like Eva. The woman is passionate, driven and determined to seek justice for those who cannot protect themselves. Their feelings were genuine and thanks to character growth Dante grew on me..but the man needed to grovel.

“It must be nice to be that self-absorbed. To never consider anyone else’s feelings. Or to use them however you see fit to get exactly what you want.”

The case was an exciting one with human trafficking, security codes, and intense action scenes. There were plenty of twists, turns, and hang-ups as they moved to close their cases. I thought the thread about the wife, of the son, of our villain, was interesting. I had a hard time buying she wanted to stay or that Eva could let go like that. Hart did an excellent job with the trafficking issue and highlighted some of the frustrations law enforcement faces.

The romance grabbed page time from a gripping suspense and delivered heat. The scene in the castle had me cracking up. I for one don't think I could have let passion get the best of me in a situation like that. I like when there is a balance between the suspense and romance.  However, in this instance, I craved a more in-depth case.

I absolutely love the AI computer software system. Her personality and comments cracked me up. Any page time with her was welcome. We did get some page time with the other Gravediggers and learned some more information about them. I am hoping we get all of their stories. The series has continued to get stronger, and while not perfect, I do want more.

Copy provided by the publisher. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer

[EBookObsessed]

An exciting and interesting twist to the Black Op/ex-military genre.

I put a trigger warning because this book deals with the trafficking of little girls for sex slavery. While the violence is not graphically detailed, you can’t help but be aware of the consequences if the mission fails without it being spelled out.

I was offered a review copy of The Darkest Corner (Book 1) a few months ago. I looked at it a few times but didn’t take a copy simply to avoid overloading my review list. I am kicking myself right now since I enjoyed the dynamic of this group of Gravediggers. The name comes from the fact that those hand-picked individuals who come from different military groups around the world must die in their former lives. They are injected with a serum which imitates death and after they are buried, they resuscitate and are eventually dug up to join the group. Now while the men in this group are all picked for their skills, they are not the most upstanding of men and that it one of the reasons they are picked to “die off” and join. The only problem I had is that they are all supposed to be dead but they were all using their real names. Shouldn’t they have been given a new identity once they made the team?

In this story, Lord Dante Malcolm is an agent with MI6 and he also leads a secret life as an art thief under the name Simon Locke. Now the idea for Simon Locke seems to have been taken from the Princess Bride and like the Dread Pirate Roberts, it is a name passed down from thief to thief after the current Simon decides he wants to retire, he then finds an apprentice. Dante liked the excitement of not only stealing valuable art but to be doing it while working MI6.

Sleeping with the woman at Interpol tasked with taking down Simon Locke, Inspector Olivia Rothschild, was supposed to just be for a bonus thrill, but they both fall in love. Dante is arrogant enough to think he can continue to have it all: Agent, thief and lover but it all falls down around his ears when Eve Winters, head of the Gravediggers, confronts him. She knows about Simon Locke and unless Dante dies and joins the Gravediggers, she will make sure he spends the remainder of his days behind bars.

With no other options, Dante fakes his death and joins, but he is still living a double life as his brothers-in-arms are not aware of Dante’s Simon persona but Eve makes sure to use him and his skills on special assignments. One which includes retrieving nuclear launch codes before they go on auction to the highest bidder.

Meanwhile, Liv has grieved for and hated Dante for his deception and her almost disgrace at Interpol for sleeping with the man she was supposed to be tracking down. Nowadays, Liv is working with a task force trying to take down a ring of human traffickers who abduct and sell little girls. Liv has strong feelings about this assignment because her twin sister was abducted when they were six and she has never been able to find any trace of her.

Liv and Dante’s assignments lead them to the same man and as Liv comes face to face with the man who broke her heart, accusations–and punches–are thrown about but they are forced to work together for the safety of those missing girls and the world in general. I did find it confusing that while Dante came to the bad guy’s house prepared to get through the several layers of guards and sophisticated security, Liv managed to get to the door but didn’t have any tech toys to get her past the front door or any plan to get the little girls out — so what was she planning to do if she hadn’t run into Dante right there and then? Did she think she would shadow someone inside and leave holding hands like they were on a school field trip? It was kind of stupid for a trained agent to be standing there empty handed. Dante said to himself that she must have watched the same 20/20 Special tour of the house that he did, but obviously she didn’t pay attention that the heavily guarded bad guy lair had high-tech security. Duh!

Lilliana Hart writes a very captivating group of characters and I really will have to make time to go back and read the first two stories. Even the sophisticated AI computer that they use has a fun personality as she tries to fit in with the group, showing what she has decided she will look like once a body can be created for her, and trying to flirt with Dante. I also want to find out why Axel would give her the voice of his wife (who he left behind). Is this a reminder of his lost love or punishment for having to give her up? Hmmm…I definitely want more of this series. Even their Queen Bitch leader must have an interesting story behind how she can be so cold and focused.

I am definitely in for more.