Final Target - Softcover

Iris Johansen

3.94

7,080 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330488708 ISBN 13: 9780330488709

Publisher: Pan MacMillan, 2001

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Dr. Jessica Riley nursed her sister back from a six-year withdrawal after the traumatic deaths of their parents and Melissa has spent every day since living life to the full. But when Jessica takes on the treatment of Cassie, beloved daughter of US President Andreas, the lives of both sisters become more and more complicated. Cassie is suffering a nightmare-filled trauma after her family`s holiday retreat was violently attacked by masked criminals wishing to bargain with the President and use his daughter as currency. Cassie`s life was saved at the last minute, but the bloody affair has gone unpunished and Cassie`s saviour, Michael Travis - the only man who seems to hold any clues to the attackers` identities - has secrets of his own and has disappeared himself.

As the manhunt for enigmatic diamond smuggler Travis closes in, all the characters are forced to bend the rules and trust those they would normally condemn. Extraordinary bonds develop and at every turn the mysterious pull of an emerald-eyed statue is strangely significant. Lives depend on knowing who can really be trusted and some will doubtless be lost...

This intense and lively thriller will keep you turning the pages to discover who is going to be the FINAL TARGET.

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Review:

Jessica Riley is a psychiatrist whose experience with catatonic trauma is personal as well as professional: she brought her beloved sister Melissa back from total mental withdrawal with her patience and skill. When the daughter of the president retreats into blankness after seeing her nanny and her Secret Service protector murdered, Jessica is summoned to treat the little girl. Although Jessica can't reach into her young patient's frightened mind, Melissa can--and only Melissa understands why Cassie's so afraid. When Michael Travis, the mysterious and not totally benign stranger who rescued Cassie from the kidnap-assassination that traumatized her, arrives at Jessica's Virginia estate, he's able to stop the child's nightmares long enough for Melissa to join Cassie in her self-imposed darkness and pull her back into the light. But the price he asks for his continued presence is one that Jessica, Melissa, and the president may not be able to meet. Is he an ally or an enemy? Even Melissa isn't sure--and her complicated feelings for Travis and Cassie are especially tortured because her unusual gifts allow her to see a bloody future for both of them, one she may not be able to prevent.

Iris Johansen (The Killing Game, The Search) ratchets up the suspense in this fast-moving thriller, which ranges across international borders from Washington to Amsterdam to Paris with the help of Air Force One and Two. While the president isn't very satisfactorily developed except as a frightened father who'll do almost anything to save his daughter, Travis and Melissa are fascinating characters who linger in the mind after the last explosive page; hopefully, Johansen will revisit them in a future adventure. Meanwhile, this is her best and most engaging read in years. --Jane Adams

From the Inside Flap:

es, 6 hrs.
Performance by Carolyn McCormick

No sooner does Melissa Delgado arrive at her sister's isolated Virginia country home than she finds herself drawn into a drama she never expected. Years earlier her sister, the renowned Dr. Jessie Delgado, pulled Melissa out of the darkness of severe catatonic trauma. Now Jessie is attempting to do the same for the daughter of the president of the United States.

The last thing young Cassie Andrews saw was an organized team of thieves ruthlessly murder her nanny and the Secret Service officers assigned to protect her—in an attempt to steal the priceless statue of the Wind Dancer, whose possession is fabled to determine the fate of nations.

It's Melissa who turns out to be the key in bringing Cassie back from the depths of her terrifying nightmares. But to do so, she must risk her own safety and place her trust in a mysterious, charismatic man.

Michael Gage made his fortune in the international un

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