When Emma Streat’s megasuccessful CEO husband dies in a hit-and-run accident, she sets out to find his killer. The search plunges the dynamic ex-opera singer into an international high-tech world where a new laser invention may become a global threat. Using her talent for making unlikely connections, Emma becomes involved with an intriguing British peer who works undercover smoking out spies. Then two physicists are murdered and a key notebook stolen. Emma must keep her head while mourning her husband’s death and sustaining threats on her life. Her search spirals into a terrifying development—-and a surprising end. With her debut mystery, Eugenia Lovett West has crafted a thrilling and emotionally packed story. Emma Streat is a strong, appealing heroine, a resourceful woman who is determined to discover what shattered her quiet life, no matter the cost.

Emma Streat is rebuilding her shattered life in Boston when she receives an SOS from Venice. She must come at once to intervene in a disastrous affair between her opera singer niece, Vanessa, and a notorious playboy. But the night Emma and Vanessa return home, Vanessa is struck down by what appears to be the first case of avian flu in the United States. Suddenly Emma is forced to cope with the medical world. As the case assumes a larger, international aspect, she finds herself working again with a charismatic British peer. Will their unusual relationship survive Emma’s new interest in a brilliant doctor? After two shocking murders, Emma has to rev up her now-established talent for making unlikely connections, in order to smoke out a lethal global network that sells stolen viruses—and save herself from a painful and horrifying death. Eugenia Lovett West’s sequel to Without Warning is a fast-moving, thrilling ride, featuring a resourceful, mature woman, a unique character in crime fiction today.