Shades of Gray

May 4, 1998
Hinze moves from the cozy surroundings of the Seascape romances she writes as Victoria Barrett to a setting where love takes especially hard work. Members of the Special Operations unit of the U.S. Air Force certainly have a tough life. Dads and moms aren't always around for their kids, not if they're out on "TDY"--active duty fighting bad guys in swampy parts of the world. Hinze's hero, Jake (the ubiquitous name for macho heroes), has a 2% survival rate on most of the assignments he gets, so he's never really tried to put down roots, although he longs to. In order to keep his son Timmy out of the custody of his alcoholic ex-wife, Jake accepts his friend Laura Taylor's offer of a marriage of convenience. Laura is a former Special Ops officer who designs complicated communications equipment. Given their lives, love isn't an option, but after two years together, resisting it isn't either. The complications here go beyond the usual hurdles faced by romantic protagonists and make the romance more touching for being hard won. And if the main action--Laura and Jake must combat terrorists amassing anthrax in the Florida Everglades--seems far-fetched, just read The New York Times. 500,000 first printing.