Live to See Tomorrow

April 15, 2014
A female CIA superagent must protect her son, rescue a humanitarian journalist and defeat a shadowy crime kingpin. In this latest thriller from best-selling author Johansen (Silencing Eve, 2013, etc.), we're introduced to elite CIA operator Catherine Ling. Initially recruited as a teenager living on the streets of Hong Kong and a veteran of countless covert operations, Catherine is now just hoping to spend quality time with her rapidly maturing son, Luke. However, when her mentor, Hu Chang, is tapped for the job of rescuing a kidnapped journalist from a Tibetan mountain fortress, Catherine shifts from mother back to superspy. During the rescue attempt, Catherine begins a telepathic dialogue with the mysterious "Guardian," Richard Cameron. Their relationship fluctuates between an unusual series of extrasensory exchanges and a roller-coaster ride of sexual escapades. At the same time their affair is developing, Catherine and Cameron must match wits against a mysterious underworld boss who has his hands in every type of evil and will stop at nothing to grasp at power. In this story, that power takes the form of access to an unknown Shangri-La-type destination, whose location (and very existence) appears to be protected by Cameron. Along the way, the reader is treated to gratuitous action sequences (gunfights, explosions and "karate" showdowns) with dubious believability. Short on narrative details and high on lust, it seems that the novel's primary concern is building the sexual tension between its primary protagonists, only to leave the characters unsure of themselves once they are in each other's arms. High on action and sensuality but with questionable plausibility.

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March 15, 2014
Johansen returns to her Catherine Ling series (What Doesn't Kill You, 2012) as the Hong Kong street urchin turned stealth CIA operative is recruited, in spite of her reluctance, to rescue renowned journalist Erin Sullivan. Sullivan is being held captive at an abandoned Tibetan monastery by Kadmus, a sadistic megalomaniac who believes she is the link to the fabled lost Eden of Shambala. Though Ling wants nothing more than to spend precious time with her 11-year-old son, Luke, Ling's mentor and protector, Hu Chang, persuades her to accept the assignment. Things, of course, don't go according to plan, and Ling is teamed with the enigmatic Richard Cameron, whose supernatural powers of mental telepathy are manifested in mind games that leave Ling in his thrall and her son in mortal danger. Although the battle for ultimate control over the idyllic mountain kingdom rages between Kadmus and Cameron, Ling's world, also, is threatened in intensely intimate ways. In a genre laden with macho, action-hero figures, Johansen's shrewd and steely female operative is as tough as they come. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Johansen's voracious fans will be happy to have a new Ling story after the conclusion of the author's enormously popular Eve Duncan series, and this new thriller will be strongly promoted on all platforms.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2013

Fans first met Catherine Ling in Chasing the Night, 11th in the Eve Duncan series. Now woman-as-weapon Catherine, a CIA operative since age 14, has been sent on a dangerous mission to rescue a woman journalist imprisoned in Tibet.

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