Reluctant Runaway
To Catch a Thief series, No. 2

by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

FBI Agent Tony Lucano knows that his girlfriend, Desiree Jacobs, has a knack for getting into trouble. But Desi, who owns HJ Securities, believes he doesn’t trust her. Needless to say, their relationship is on shaky ground. Then Desi’s assistant, Maxine Webb, asks for help in finding her missing niece, Karen, who abandoned her infant son and husband the day after Desi’s client, the New Mexico Museum of Art and Anthropology, was robbed of precious Indian artifacts. Desi feels the disappearance and robbery are connected, and is further worried that Karen, a secretary at the museum, was forced to reveal the security code, then kidnapped or killed.

After Desi and Maxi arrive in Albuquerque, they learn from Maxi’s sister that Karen was involved in a new religious sect, the Inner Witness Ministries. After Karen’s father, a Zuni medicine man, arrives to demand his grandson, believing the infant is the focus of an unseen battle, Karen investigates the sect and her concern for the infant's safety grows. The stolen artifacts were used by the extinct Anasazi’s for blood sacrifices. Did the sect kidnap Karen? Do they also plan to kidnap her child and use him in a bloodthirsty sacrifice?

Meanwhile, Tony’s current case involves drugs, embezzlement and a trucking company owed by Ham Gordon, a man with strong ties to the Inner Witness Ministries. When one of his co-agents is killed, Tony heads for Albuquerque to see Desi and realizes that their investigations are connected through Gordon and the heretical religious sect.

Then the killing starts, and soon Tony’s and Desi’s lives are threatened. A deadly race against time begins as they try to find Karen and save an infant from a horrible death.

Jill Elizabeth Nelson’s Reluctant Runaway is an action-packed thriller with an intriguing mystery that kept me enthralled to the end. Filled with twists and turns, excitement and danger, Reluctant Runaway is roller-coaster ride of deception, greed, humor and faith. While Reluctant Runaway is the second book in the series, Ms. Nelson has provided sufficient back story to make this book stand on its own as an outstanding inspirational romantic suspense, and one I definitely recommend. I look forward to reading more from this highly talented author.