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The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Final Target , Iris Johansen raises the stakes and the heart rate with this relentless new thriller that follows the harrowing trail of a ruthless killer on the huntand the woman who is determined to hunt him down. He is the most terrifying of killers: ruthless, cunning, charismatic. And he has the means to get whatever he wants. And what Rico Chavez wants most is Elena Kylerand he wants her dead. Trained as an assassin, Elena didnt need anyone to survive. But now she finds herself on the run from one dangerous man and turning for help to another. Sean Galen was a man without illusions. He knew it was only desperation that caused Elena to accept his helpa mothers desperation to save her young son from a psychopath father who would raise their son in his own chilling image. And yet he was determined to get this woman who had never been able to trust anyone or anything in her whole life to accept him as her ally. But both Galen and Elena know that Chavezs power and wealth mean there is no place they can be safe and no one they can trustnot even each other. Already Chavezs assassins and connections to those in the highest positions of power have turned this into a war with no rules. With two shocking acts of brutal violence, Chavez shows he will stop at nothing and that nothing will stop him. Soon a trail of horrifying murders will follow Galen and Elena across country to a last stand and a shattering showdown. For Chavez is a master of control and he wants more than just to take Elenas life. He wants her alive long enough to see him destroy every reason she has for living. He wants her to turn against everything and everyone she ever believed in. He wants her to commit the ultimate act of betrayal. And by the time he is through, he wants her to beg him to take the only thing shell have left to give: her life. From Publishers Weekly Think Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 and a jaded James Bond, and you've got the principals down pat for crowd-pleaser Johansen's (Body of Lies) latest romantic suspenser. Elena Kyler was born in Colombia and raised by her rebel fighter father, formerly an American mercenary. After her father dies and her rebel comrades sell out to druglord Rico Chavez, Elena, now in her mid-20s, concocts a desperate plan to save herself and her five-year-old son Barry from Chavez, who also happens to be Barry's father. She contacts the DEA, who call in the Bondian Sean Galen, a debonair maverick. The plan is to bring Elena and Barry to the U.S., then capture Chavez when he comes for his son. After a daring air-lift escape, Sean, Elena and Barry make it to California, but an ambush by Chavez's men leaves them running for their lives. Unaccustomed to relying on the kindness of strangers, Elena finds herself forced to lean on Sean as the two zigzag across the U.S., falling in love along the way. In the current climate, the threat of drug cartels feels dated and Chavez is such an over-the-top nasty that he's downright silly. Add to that a melodramatic anti-heroine, who's also a cliched assassin-with-a-heart-of-gold seeking spiritual redemption, and a Southeastern climax that's as '80s as Miami Vice, and the sum total becomes a derivative stew. Johansen has delivered better in the past and hopefully will again in the future. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal One assassin is after another in this latest from the author of Final Target. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.