Michelle Mason and her boyfriend Danny have a past they'd like to forget—and for the most part, they have. Living in California's Humboldt County as Emily and Jeff, they've established honorable lives as a restaurant owner and volunteer firefighter, respectively. Emily is proud of her accomplishments, but Jeff hasn't adjusted as easily. After she simultaneously learns that Jeff has been arrested for drug trafficking and receives a visit from an ex-CIA contractor-turned-bad guy Gary, Emily soon abandons her restaurant, reassumes her real identity as Michelle, and begins juggling Jeff/Danny's legal situation and a new undercover assignment that Gary had blackmailed her into carrying out. Michelle ingratiates herself as the assistant to the founder of a charity organization. She doesn't know what Gary is up to, but she knows he can't be trusted. Michelle must decide what she values most—her new boss's safety, her boyfriend's release from prison, or her own freedom. In her fifth thriller (after Getaway), Brackmann has created a damaged but likable protagonist. Her prose is engaging, but the story line itself is anticlimactic. VERDICT Give this one to readers looking for character-driven suspense.—Vicki Briner, Westminster, CO

Michelle Mason, the heroine of Brackman's brisk sequel to 2012's Getaway, has rebuilt her life under an assumed name after a vacation in Mexico went bad. She owns a popular bistro in Arcata, a town in marijuana-rich Humboldt County, Calif., and lives with Jeff, her volunteer firefighter boyfriend, whose real name is Danny and who played a significant role in Getaway. Jeff moonlights by flying the finest cannabis to out-of-state customers until he's arrested in Texas on federal drug trafficking charges. To get Jeff's charges dropped, Michelle must work with their old nemesis, shady CIA agent Gary, who wants her to "babysit" Kaitlin O'Connor, a wealthy socialite. Kaitlin heads Safer America, a social welfare organization lobbying for "tough on crime" measures. Gary and his backers want Kaitlin, who drinks too much, to sober up and help defeat a Texas bill that would legalize marijuana for recreational use—and possibly open the door for similar legislation across the country. The edgy plot never lets up, touching on the war on drugs, for-profit prisons, and nefarious nonprofits. Agent: Katherine Fausset, Curtis Brown. (July)