TAILSPIN: An FBI Thriller
Catherine Coulter
Putnam Adult
Thriller
ISBN: 9780399155031

"Tailspin" correctly describes the action in Catherine Coulter’s latest romantic suspense novel. FBI Special Agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock, a married team, dive headfirst into an investigation full of question marks.

Following an attempt on his life, Dr. Timothy MacLean is put into FBI custody after having been diagnosed with frontal lobe dementia, a devastating illness that has no cure. Outward symptoms consist of the victim babbling uncontrollable scenarios --- some true, others not. MacLean has leaked private information from his patients’ case files, and his stories could strike untold damage in their lives. He confides in his best friend and tennis partner, Arthur Dolan, who drives off a cliff shortly after their conversation. FBI Special Agent Jack Crowne, a family friend, pilots a small plane over the Kentucky mountains to bring MacLean back to Washington, D.C. where he can be monitored and protected. But the flight plan does not include a fiery crash in rough mountain terrain, cause unknown.

Nearby, in a clearing outside Parlow, Kentucky, Rachael Abbott witnesses the incident and rushes to aid possible survivors. She seeks sanctuary in the back country where she can sort out the elements that have put her life into a spin; she must guard her secret and hide her true identity. But her sense of duty prevails when she lifts the wounded pilot to his feet and navigates him to the nearest clinic.

TAILSPIN transfers action back and forth among the four leading characters. Although the primary plot line follows MacLean’s story, Rachael’s cannot be ignored. She too has been targeted for murder and is traversing the countryside headed for Slipper Hollow, to safe haven with her uncle Gillette. She is terrified that the FBI team will learn that she is the recently discovered bastard daughter of powerful U.S. Senator James Abbott.

Barely six weeks after welcoming her into his family without question, the Senator dies in a one-car accident. Alcohol findings at the crash site indicate he was driving while drunk, wrecking the car and killing himself. Shortly afterwards, Rachael is drugged, hogtied to a block of cement and thrown into a lake, but escapes due to her tremendous strength and will to live. On the run from the killers, she comes upon the plane crash scene.

Sherlock and Savich investigate MacLean’s case and discover a bomb as a possible cause. MacLean is taken to the hospital in D.C.; he is hurt but will recover physically. While there, two additional murder attempts keep the FBI hopping. One of the team’s members suffers a syringe attack but keeps the murderer at bay with help from a nurse. Meanwhile, Rachael is convinced that her father’s sister Laurel, his brother Quincy and Laurel’s sleazy husband Kostas are out to eliminate her. Before his death, the Senator had divulged a secret that haunted his last days. If it became public, the family would suffer humiliation --- a motive for his murder and that of his daughter. Jack Crowne became her guardian and discovered an emotional attachment to the girl with the unusual blond braid. Sexual attraction is tastefully worded, both in the lives of the married FBI agents and the young woman with her protector. Coulter writes these interludes with intensity yet discretion.

A klutzy local sheriff adds flair to the story. He’s an actual retiree from a big city police force, much more intelligent than he first appears. Additional small-town flavor comes forth in the personalities of a diner waitress, Uncle Gillette, the local doctor and, of course, the would-be abductors who try to kill Rachael.

The reader wanders toward an attempt to interlace the two plots, making the doctor’s patients wind toward the Senator’s death. Dr. MacLean’s predicament is powerful, and Coulter touches but briefly on the devastation that wrecks his life. She brings both stories to their logical end, with a twist that will leave the audience in a TAILSPIN.

    --- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad

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