Midnight In Orlando by Amy Dawson Robertson

Publisher:                   Fox in the Brush Books

Readers want to enjoy good stories and they want to know that an author can be trusted to deliver on that point.  Amy Dawson Robertson is quickly joining the ranks of those who can be depended on to deliver the goods.  Though she is better known for her Rennie Vogel series of adventure/suspense novels, Robertson proves in Midnight in Orlando that she can perform just as well in other genre.  Officially this is a romance novella, approximately 100 pages long, but it reads with the depth and development of a full length book.

Anyone who has ever attended a lesbian literary conference will feel comfortable with the setting of this book immediately.  It takes place in Orlando, Florida, where lesbians are gathering to celebrate the books written for and by their community.  The story features two “Con virgins,” the term used for people who are attending the conference for the first time.  Susan Voight is a lawyer from Baltimore who faces the same problem many professional women encounter.  She works so many hours that there is no time to form a personal relationship.  She escapes the stress of her job by reading lesbian romance novels and that is what impels her to suddenly decide to attend the conference.  Nic Green believes she is neurotic and suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, although her therapist keeps telling her that neither is true.  She has been a successful author of lesbian romances for many years and is considered a mysterious icon because she has never appeared in public.  Nic decides to expand her horizons and try meeting some of her fans, which is what brings her to the conference.

What proceeds from this is a string of humorous situations bringing the women together.  Susan finds herself trying to duck a lawyer’s conference that happens to be in the same hotel, afraid that someone will discover her reading choices.  Nic goes to bizarre lengths to make herself “comfortable” in her hotel room and hide out, only to discover she is the keynote speaker for the conference.  For a while Susan believes that Nic might actually be mentally ill because of her behavior, but there is something compelling about each woman for the other.  Swirling around them are the events of the conference.  People who have attended one of these meetings will recognize the events and possibly some of the supporting characters that Robertson peppers throughout the story.

Midnight in Orlando is a gem.  It’s short enough to read quickly, but the characters are completely developed and enough is revealed about the events to make the story flow smoothly.  It’s a good example of how writing can be compact yet contain a great deal of information.  This is good reading, plain and simple.

Scapegoat by Amy Dawson Robertson

Publisher:        Bella Books

Scapegoat is volume two in the Rennie Vogel intrigue series.  Someone has to pay for the mistakes made in a previous government mission in Tajkistan and Rennie is that someone.  Her career is over and she’s been ordered not to have any contact with Hannah Marcus, the woman she rescued during the mission.  Rennie is ripe to be plucked when she is approached by the Foundation, a private organization formed by a wealthy businessman to deal with threats to the country that the US government may not be able to be involved with.  Rennie agrees with the Foundation in principle, but she’s not sure of its tactics.  Her first assignment brings her in contact with a murderer, white supremacists, survivalists and Hannah Marcus.  It’s questionable which is more difficult, bringing down a terrorist threat to the US or establishing a relationship with Hannah.

This is an excellent follow-up to Robertson’s first book Miles to Go.  There is an atmosphere of tension through the whole book and a dark tone that seems to surround Rennie.  The suspense follows a pattern of building; then there is a release before it builds the suspense again.  Each time the peak goes higher than before leading to a crescendo in the final confrontation.  The characters are complicated and very well drawn.  Vogel is a study in the complexity of a person who is trying to reestablish herself after she thinks her life has been destroyed and Hannah clearly shows the torn emotions of a woman who is dedicated to her work, but wants to make room in her life for someone else.  Supporting characters are just as complex, perhaps more so.

One of the book’s strengths is that Robertson has the courage to let things happen that other authors fail to carry through with because they’re not very nice.  She doesn’t mind taking a risk with her plot.  Scapegoat is realistic in showing that, sometimes, the bad guy does win a confrontation.  Added to that is enough about current situations to make the reader feel like she is reading an account of actual events instead of fiction.

Amy Dawson Robertson has earned herself a position among the best action suspense writers today.  Both of her books have delivered on everything that the category promises.  She is quickly entering that group of authors whose books will be bought automatically because they are known for the quality they provide.  The fact that she tells an excellent story is certainly part of that.

Miles To Go by Amy Dawson Robertson

Publisher:               Bella Books

Good first novels usually feature a well-told story with a few weaknesses, but they also show the author's potential for the future.  Seldom are they strong in every category.  Amy Dawson Robertson apparently didn't read the rule book about first novels because she has produced a powerhouse with Miles To Go, the first volume in the Rennie Vogel Intrigue series.

Rennie Vogel achieves the impossible through torturous training and determination.  She is the first woman even chosen to be on an FBI international counter terrorism team.  Most people think she's a product of affirmative action and will destroy her team, but Rennie is determined to prove that she's as good as any man on the squad.  She prepares until she is a lean, instinctive operative totally focused on their mission and stripped down to the bare essence of her soul, with no personal life and no need for one.  When the team is given an impossible assignment to assassinate a terrorist leader, Rennie is ready to play her part.

When the assignment is disrupted by one disaster after another, Rennie is determined to carry it out to its conclusion.  What she didn't count on was rescuing Hannah Marcus, an American journalist who had been held by the terrorists for two years and was presumed dead by most of the world.  Surviving the completion of her assignment had always been questionable, but surviving it with Hannah in tow seems impossible.  As they flee through the hostile territory of Tajikistan pursued by members of the terrorist band, Rennie has to deal with two issues she hasn't trained for.  She has to depend on someone else and she develops an attraction for Hannah.  Even if they survive, secret dealings of the American government will probably keep them from having a future, but they have to try.

The first question the reader is going to have after reading this book is whether Robertson herself has ever been an agent for the government.  She includes tremendous detail about the training that agents go through, the way they think, and the way that covert missions are organized.  She also shows an intricate knowledge of how intrigue within the government works, how agencies interact and how they cover up what they don't want known.  Robertson demonstrates more insight into international politics than the average citizen and creates a story that contains so much realism at times the reader will have to remember that it's fiction and not a telling of factual events.

The other strong part about this novel is the way it's written.  There are no extraneous scenes.  Each one has a purpose and adds to the flow of the story.  The characters are well developed, but at the end of the book you still won't know everything about Rennie or Hannah.  There is enough revealed to move this story, but there are aspects of both women that can be developed in later books.   

The real beauty of the book, however, is the language it's written in.  The prose used in the book almost comes out as poetry.  At times the reader can get lost in the way the words are used and their descriptive quality.  You can taste the sweat, feel the heat and smell the blood.

The only fear is that Robertson may have shot all of her ability in her first book, but that doesn't seem likely.  Time will tell.  For now, Miles To Go is a must read for anyone who likes a story full of adventure, thrills, and intrigue that comes straight from current events.  It's also for the reader who likes an exceptionally well-told story.