Unstuck Pages

Dr. Carmen Rodrigues, CDC’s Outbreak Task Force director, is on the hunt for a killer–– an airborne virus spreading from Florida across the States, gaining traction with each passing moment. Although she’ll never forget her one night with sexy bodyguard John Dozer in Afghanistan, his protective nature is one distraction she doesn’t need right now.

Ex-Army Intelligence officer John Dozer will put his life on the line for beautiful, independent Carmen. Every. Time. Even when she pushes him away. And now, with her struggling to contain an outbreak likely triggered by domestic bio-terrorists, maybe even insiders at the CDC, she needs him more than ever. He lost her once. He’ll never let that happen again.

In ‘Search and Destroy’, Julie Rowe amps it up with a serious but sudden outbreak of measles, the mobilisation and the rush to contain yet another outbreak. In a straight, unapologetic continuation from the previous book (those who haven’t yet started from scratch might find themselves in a bind here), there’s finally a sense that something bigger and more sinister is brewing. Bioterrorism? Political wrangling? All of the above? There’s more than what meets the eye, but it isn’t all clearly laid out just yet.

What I did find questioning though, was the forced chemistry and sex between Carmen and Dozer very early on—all of which would have been alright, except that it left Carmen alternating between being a simpering wimp when it came to Dozer’s supposed masculinity and being the strong, take-charge boss as the action wore on. Dozer’s less-than-appealing alpha behaviour in contrast, made him walk a dangerously close line to being a possessive alpha arse, and oddly enough, a side player in the bigger scheme of things.

In fact, I thought Rowe put Dozer’s and Carmen’s relationship on the backburner along with the questions that the reader typically has in favour of the action, which I found more believable than their relationship. As a result, Carmen/Dozer was a questionable pairing despite their very, very brief history 9 years ago and that their reunion suddenly sparked off Dozer’s sudden need to only keep Carmen now (why not any time sooner despite all the regret?) was bewildering.

Instead, the memorable character that stood larger than life throughout the series turned out to be the Drill Sergeant whom I found hilarious but also charismatic the moment he appeared on the pages and that alone you could say, makes every book in the series worth reading.

This isn’t to say that ‘Search and Destroy’ isn’t smartly and well-written…it certainly is, even if it’s the rare book of Rowe that has gotten me a little more disappointed than excited. Rowe makes it very clear that the series has a mini arc within a larger narrative arc that will keep going for some time with the sequels to follow. Yet because of this, ‘Search and Destroy’ felt incomplete and particularly rushed with Carmen/Dozer’s relationship that went from zero to a hundred in a space of a few days, carved out in small pockets that frankly, did feel like blippy speed bumps in the otherwise pacey and thrillingly consistent storytelling.