Review: Rules of Vengeance by Christopher Reich

Fresh, after working to foil an attack on a commercial flight, Dr. Jonathan Ransom travels to London for a medical conference. An impromptu meeting brings him together with his secret agent wife, Emma Ransom. Instead of a happy vacation, Jonathan witnesses Emma set off a car bomb in an attempt to assassinate Igor Ivanov, the Russian Interior Minister. Emma disappears and Jonathan is held responsible for the bombing.

Inspector Kate Ford believes Jonathan is guilty and is assisted by MI-5 agent Colonel Graves. In an effort to prove his innocence and find his wife before she can engineer another disaster, Ransom must become a spy himself. He leads his pursuers on a chase across Europe in an effort to stop Emma in time.

This is the sequel to Christopher Reich's Rules of Deception, published in 2008. I must say that I am very pleased with this second novel in the series. The action begins with the very first sentence and you are not one hundred percent sure what is going on until the very end, and maybe not even then.

Jonathan and Emma return and have evolved into somewhat different people in this novel. Jonathan is still the doctor who thinks he can save everyone, but now lays it all on the line to first save and later stop his wife. Emma is still in love with Jonathan, but we learn more about her secret life as an agent for Division that changes how we feel about her.

The suspense leads up to a dramatic stand off at the end. A surprise twist at the very end makes you rethink the events throughout the entire book. While the ending has enough closure to satisfy, I find myself hoping that there will be a third book in the series.