Suzanne Brockmann’s a Troubleshooter
Posted on: July 29, 2008
Dear Author has a new “If you like ____, you’ll like ____” series, and they’re featuring Suzanne Brockmann. The timing is interesting for two reasons: 1) Brockmann has a new book out, 13 in her Troubleshooters series about Navy SEAL Team 16/the FBI counterterrorism unit/the Troubleshooters security firm, and 2) I’ve been devouring the Troubleshooters series.
Here’s the funny thing about the Dear Author post: It describes quite well all the things I love about the series, which I started reading out of order. (I picked up Book 5 on a whim, not realizing it was part of a series, and have been working my way through the rest. Publishers should really mark the books.) Anyway, the series is good. Brockmann may be responsible for the Navy SEAL cliche in romantic suspense, but I love the recurring characters, and Brockmann is good with both characters and intricate suspense.
So, yeah, every book has a romance plot that gets neatly resolved by the end of the book, and the characters are occasionally prone to speechifying about their great loves (which was particularly weird in Book #8, which I just finished, in which the normally taciturn Cosmo Richter goes on for half a page towards the end of the novel about how much he loves the heroine, Jane… unlikely and pretty cheesy). The funny thing is that I didn’t get into the series immediately. I thought Book 5 (Into the Night featuring hunky Navy SEAL Mike Muldoon, who I love despite not loving his book) was not actually that suspenseful, but I’ve really loved the other books in the series, particularly Over the Edge (Book 6). I’m currently glomming my way through Breaking Point, which is really good, the resolution of the story arc between FBI agent in chief Max Bhagat and hostage/rape victim Gina. There’s so much to love in this book, and now that I’ve gotten to know the characters, I can appreciate it that much more.
I was a little disappointed to learn that all of gay FBI agent Jules Cassidy’s love scenes happen behind closed doors (I haven’t gotten that far in the series yet, it’s mentioned in the Dear Author post). Jules gets all the best one-liners and is a great character, it’s a shame he doesn’t get to have sex on screen, but putting a gay romance in a series full of macho alpha males is a daring and pretty awesome choice, so I look forward to getting through the rest of the Jules/Robin plot arc.
So, yeah, I’m squeeing a bit. Nice to see Brockmann get some attention, since I’m enjoying her books so much. I’ve got a couple of her category romance reissues, too, I’ll get to those soon enough. Glom glom.
What series fiction have you devoured quickly?
August 4, 2008 at 2:40 am
I’ll try not to completely reiterate my LJ. Out of the five I’m reading now, the Burke novels may be my favoritest. Not that’s really easy to compare those with Thursday Next, especially. But wow, that author is hardcore. Repairman Jack is comical next to him. And there are glimmers of a filthy librul buried underneath Burke’s toughness, which I of course appreciate.