One of Heather Graham's strengths is making the setting of her books just as much as a character as the hero and heroine! Obviously, anything I know about the Everglades is from TV, movies, and books, but with a finely tuned, precise turn of her pen, she makes the place come alive, as if I were watching a movie! That was definitely a highlight here.
The plot has masked criminals taking Kody Cameron hostage, because the leader believes she can lead them to an old gangster's missing fortune, possibly buried somewhere in the Everglades. Lucky for Kody, one of the team members is actually Nick Connolly, an undercover FBI agent. They actually briefly crossed paths before, and something in her tells her she can trust him.
The action gets going right from the start, and is almost consistent until the end. It was an easy story to read. Alas, there were aspects that distracted me! Biggest of all is the thieves' motives. They're a bit thin. Why is the leader so intent on believing this treasure exists, and that Kody's the one who can lead him to it, when there's no concrete evidence that its existence is folklore or not? He certainly seems to go to enormous lengths and take enormous risks for an outcome that isn't 100% airtight.
Also, since Nick spends half the book in a mask, the romance just falls short of being convincing. The action element is too busy to really build anything believable between Kody and Nick. However, at least the story surrounding them was fast-paced! The only times it dragged was when we got one too many info dumps about what rooms looked like, or the history of the place.
What really took that extra star off for me was the appearance of FBI agent Jason Tiger, who is conveniently stationed in a convenient safe house in the Everglades, and can conveniently move around undetected and conveniently knows the Everglades like the back of his hand. How convenient! It lessened the suspense to a great degree, because his FBI superpowers left me without feeling our leads were in any real danger, because his FBI superpowers would always be there in the background for support. How convenient! His character really should have been nixed from the book!
I'm surprised to see Heather Graham writing for Intrigue, but at least it's a pleasant surprise! This appears to be the first in a series (groan), but there are no real storyline threads dangling at the end of this one, so I'm hoping the subsequent entries stand on their own.