Panama Deception by Jennifer Haynie

Are you a reader that likes fast action, romance, and danger in a plot? If you answered yes, Jennifer Haynie's book, Panama Deception, offers all of those things in a novel.

Alex Thornton is a disgraced former covert operative who leaves the United States to meet up with her 3 other good friends in Costa Rica for a vacation. When Alex and 2 of her friends arrive, they discover that their good friend, Melanie, has not only not arrived but has been kidnapped.

Jabir  al-Omri is Alex's former comrade who abandoned Alex four years before after a mission gone amuck. Jabir is in the area for another mission. Alex and Jabir run into each other and join forces to find Melanie.

Panama Deception is definitely a page turner and I don't want to give any of the plot away. It has adventure, intrigue and romance. It is also quite violent in several scenes. The non-Christian characters are leading a fairly worldly life with drinking and sex mentioned in various places, although the sex is not descriptive, which I appreciated. However, Jabir is a Christian and shares his spiritual point of view, as does Alex, who struggles with some faith issues. I think this book was well-written because I did want to read on although this isn't my usual genre of reading. While I struggled to get all of the characters in my head in the first few chapters, once I did, it was easy to follow the plot, although there were a lot of twists and turns. It is the start of a series and clearly leaves the reader with unanswered questions at the end of this book which would lead to book 2, Loose Ends. For those who regularly read action packed books, I would encourage them to give this series (Unit 28 Collect and Protect) a try. For Christian readers who don't regularly read violence, be aware that the book has some rather gruesome scenes and violence, including violence against women.

I purchased this book from Amazon. All viewpoints are my own.