Hell on Wheels

Starred review from June 4, 2012
In her riveting debut, Walker delivers a mystery laced with red-hot romance. Former Marines Grigg Morgan and Nate Weller work for Black Knights Inc., a high-tech motorcycle shop that’s really a black ops group doing side jobs for Uncle Sam. After Grigg dies on a mission, his sister, Ali—Nate’s longtime crush—gets embroiled in a plot that could get her killed. Crooked Sen. Alan Aldus becomes convinced that Ali has secret files that incriminate him, and he hires Dagan Zoelner, an ex-CIA agent, to bring Ali in. Lucky for her, Dagan has a conscience, and Nate will do anything to keep her alive even as he fights his attraction to her. This first-rate thrill ride leads to a satisfying emotional payoff that neatly sets up the next book: the story of Black Knights boss Frank Knight and sassy mechanic Becky Reichert. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, the Seymour Agency.

August 1, 2016

Sweeping contemporary romance has been the motorcycle club craze, which has its outposts in military romance. What would be more natural than for a group of men who served together to continue to work as a team, using a motorcycle shop as a cover for elite special ops? In the eight books in the "Black Knights, Inc." series (two more titles are projected for 2017), Frank Knight and his band of mercenaries still do the kind of work they were trained for--this time only occasionally under the auspices of U.S. authorities. And while they fend off bad guys and seek out international trouble spots, they find women who see through their masks of impassive badassery to the strength and protectiveness underneath.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
When Ali Morgan shows up at the Black Knights motorcycle garage in Chicago, a front for an off-the-books black-ops group, she announces that somebody is after her. Since her brother Grigg died on an op, they're anxious to figure out what's happening, but none care more than Nate Ghost Weller, Grigg's best friend. He's been in love with Ali forever but has some secrets he can't share with her, particularly about what her brother was up to. When Ali realizes that she possesses incriminating evidence on a thumb drive, they go to retrieve it, but not without using decoys and being pursued and attacked by thugs hired by a corrupt politician who is determined to get it back. In the process, Ali and Nate finally become lovers, only to be driven apart again. Walker's novel of romantic suspense has everything: a relentlessly fast pace, lots of torment interspersed with humor, a great cast, excellent sex scenes. And it's the beginning of a series. Readers of Tara Janzen's Steele Street series will love Walker.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)