Book Review: Death Echo by Elizabeth Lowell

Death Echo
Author: Elizabeth Lowell
Series: St. Kilda (Book 5)
Publication: Avon; Reprint edition (May 21, 2010)

Description: When she joined St. Kilda's, the elite security consulting firm, Emma Cross thought she'd left behind the blood, the guilt, and the Tribal Wars that defined her life at the CIA. Yet trading spying for investigating yacht thefts didn't alleviate the danger. Now, the same good instincts that got her into trouble at the agency might be the one thing that will help her survive her latest case.

St. Kilda and Emma are tracking a yacht named Blackbird. Emma knows the boat's intended cargo is lethal. What she needs to find out is whether it's biological, chemical, or fissionable. And she's only got seven days to uncover the truth...or a major American city will be lost. Fortunately, she's working with a new partner as menacing and distrustful as the worst enemy she's ever faced—Mackenzie Durand.

But Emma and Mac aren't the only eyes watching Blackbird. Taras Demidov, an expert in extortion and execution in the pay of oligarchs running the Former Soviet Union, is also waiting in the shadows, determined to intercept a fearsomely powerful arms dealer with the money, weaponry, and connections to alter the geopolitical balance.

My Thoughts: This romantic suspense thriller is the fifth and final book in the St Kilda series. This time former CIA Emma Cross is working for St Kilda's who has been hired by an insurance company to look into a variety of thefts of yachts. But the yacht she is currently tracking is somehow involved in a political game played by Russia and Georgia. Aided and abetted by the CIA, the two countries have nuclear destruction in mind with the goal of each blaming the other. 

Since the proposed target is an American city, US Intelligence is willing to do anything to track down the missing yacht and the bad actors. Anything includes blackmailing St Kilda's and setting it up as the fall guy if something goes wrong. 

Add in Mackenzie Durand who is a former Special Ops soldier who is vastly disillusioned by the CIA and other intelligence agencies that he blames for the deaths of his whole team. He has become a transfer pilot ferrying yachts to their new owners. As it happens, the yacht he has been hired to move is the one that is the focus of the action. 

Emma worms her way on board and she and Mac are instantly attracted. Once Mac finds out what is going on he is eager to sign on the bottom line with St Kilda's to help with the problem. He'll go back to a normal life when this issue is dealt with. 

This was an action-packed and twisty thriller complete with assorted villains all wanting to further their own agendas and not caring how many bodies they leave behind. I loved the Pacific Northwest setting and all the information about yachts and sailing them. 

I bought this one July 9, 2024. You can buy your copy here.