Rating: 1 1/2 stars

Jim Fate, hated radio talk show host (think Rush Limbaugh) opens a package from a publisher and gets a face full of toxic gas. Jim succumbs to the poison and panic breaks out in downtown Portland. Rumored to be a possible biological terrorist attack, buildings are evacuated and people are dropping like flies—

sadly it’s all in their head, just the result of the power of suggestion. Yes, there was poisonous gas, but it was contained in Fate’s studio.

FBI agent Nichole Hedges and Federal Prosecutor Allison Pierce were scheduled to meet with Fate regarding death threats he had received. Now Jim is dead and there’s no shortage of suspects. Fate had countless enemies. To make matters worse, the third member of the “Triple Threat Club”, reporter Cassidy Shaw, was having an affair with Fate on the down-low, which stands to make finding the killer a bit more interesting.

To say the story is slow-moving is an understatement. Jim Fate is dead by page nine and by page 120 nothing of significance has happened--unless you count: Nicole wondering what she’ll do about her Norse God, Leif… let’s see… hot muscle guy who loves you and runs into potential fatal gas to rescue you… duh; or Allison wondering if she’ll be a good mother, but had no problem giving up a scared little girl she rescued during the gas panic; or Cassidy with her insomnia and popping prescription pills in a bathtub full of water and burning candles. It's official, nothing of significance happening.

As in the previous book, only Nicole and Allison seem to have a purpose in the story, while Cassidy waits for them to throw her scraps so she can break the big story, while having internal arguments regarding her addiction and in constant denial that young, thin beautiful intern-Jenna is going to usurp her very soon.

Having read Wiehl’s Face of Betrayal almost exactly one year ago and wasn’t impressed then, I had to wonder why I agreed to read this one. On the last go-round issues like teen pregnancy, domestic violence, alcohol abuse and homelessness were just randomly included; this time it was rape, miscarriage and prescription drug abuse. Just like before, prayer and God is in full effect as Wiehl creates haphazard opportunities to shove it into every nook and cranny.

I guess deep-down I hoped the second book might have improved from the first; sadly, I was wrong. The only “triple threat” that these three women pose is to bore, annoy and exhaust. This experience illustrates how much pain you can forget in a year—no wonder women give birth more than once.
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Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 1 edition (April 6, 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-1595547064