Haven - Softcover

Maxim, John R.

3.88

288 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380786699 ISBN 13: 9780380786695

Publisher: Avon, 1998

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Elizabeth Stride has come to Hilton Head Island to escape her past as "the Black Angel"--a ruthless assassin--and to escape Martin Kessler, a fellow operative who owned a piece of her soul. But just as she's begun to rebuild her shattered life, Kessler reappears, toppling Elizabeth's protective wall of anonymity.

A teenage girl about to be abducted from an exclusive nearby tennis club--a girl who unwittingly holds the key to horrific planned act of terrorism. By joining forces in a daring rescue of the girl, Elizabeth and Martin will be forced to put their fates in each other's hands one more time--and decide once and for all if they are to live together or apart. In doing so, they will be drawn into a secret war of fanaticism, greed, and doomsday technology.

And there will be no haven.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Elizabeth Stride--known as the "Black Angel" when she worked for Israeli intelligence--chooses the quiet island of Hilton Head off the Carolina coast as her retirement home. She changes her hairstyle and color, takes golf and tennis lessons, and meets a kind doctor named Jonathan--a man her ex-lover, East German spy Martin Kessler, would have called dull. "In truth, Jonathan was a bit dull ... but she now aspired to dullness. She also, however, aspired to a sex life, and that was her one and only problem with him. The flesh on both sides was willing enough but Jonathan Leidner was a doctor, not only a doctor, but a surgeon. He would know bullet wounds if he saw them." It turns out that hiding her bullet wounds in bed are the least of Elizabeth's problems in John R. Maxim's exciting and inventive thriller. Kessler's attempt to relight old fires just happens to coincide with Islamic terrorists planning to attack a local tennis tournament, so Elizabeth's search for a quiet life lasts for very few pages. John Maxim's equally enjoyable The Shadow Box is available in paperback.

From the Back Cover:

Elizabeth Stride settled on South Carolina's Hilton Head Island in order to rebuild her life. In this sanctuary, she hopes to escape her past - the violence and the death that for years were her constant companions. Most of all, she wants to forget Martin Kessler, the dangerous hero of a now-lost cause - who will always own a piece of Elizabeth's soul. For Martin's love is a continuing reminder of what Elizabeth once was: the woman they called "Black Angel", a ruthless and efficient assassin. Her fury was born in a merciless Middle Eastern prison, where as an American she was detained for crimes she did not commit. She escaped with her life, and by the age of twenty-six, she was already worth $1 million dead. But Martin Kessler, himself hunted, touched her heart with unfamiliar tenderness. Now he has returned to bring Elizabeth's protective wall of anonymity crashing down. A teenage girl is about to be kidnapped from an exclusive island tennis club - a girl who unwittingly holds the key to a planned act of terrorism so horrific that an all-out war could be the only result. For Martin, a man who never learned how to lay low, curiosity will get the better of him. And for Elizabeth, whose sense of justice is equaled only by her hatred of those who would pervert it, a child's safety is inviolable - and worthy of the sacrifice of the new life she has so scrupulously constructed. By joining forces in the daring rescue of the girl, Elizabeth and Martin will be forced to put their fate in each other's hands one last time - and decide once and for all whether they must live together or apart. In doing so they will also be drawn again into a violent struggle - a secret war of fanaticism, greed and doomsday technology.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.