ALINA MASCHIK

Alina Maschik is an agent with the CIA.

To be a tad less delicate and more to the point, she is an assassin with the Agency. In fact she may be in the top two they have if not numero uno. That distinction would have to be made by her and her friendly competition but since friendly is the key word here and the only real way to know who was better would not be so amicable, it remains a moot point.

Maschik is codenamed Viper and the epithet is extremely well suited. Like the poisonous snake, she can strike with frightening speed from out of nowhere and her "bite" is almost always fatal. If she wants a person dead, they become dead.

The expression "natural born killer" would not, however, apply to Maschik. Before her life with the CIA, a time ten years before the first recorded adventure, she was an average person, engaged to be married and ready to live a normal life. Then her fiancée decided to cheat on her and that ended that relationship. Then her older brother, a Marine serving in the Middle East, died in the line of duty. That changed Maschik and gave her a new purpose, namely to serve like her deceased sibling.

The military took her gladly and found in her extremely good aptitude in the types of things special operations required. They honed those abilities to a fine edge and made good use of her. That brought her to the attention of the Agency who knew a good (or "deadly") operative when they saw one. That is when Viper came into being and for the past few years, she has more than earned that name.

When we meet up with her, she is doing something she never expected or particularly wanted to do - she is returning home. Home to the jerk, now an FBI agency, who played around on her. Home to the two classmates who were like sisters back in the day, one now a bank executive and the other a Fibbie herself, partnered, believe it or not, with the jerk. Thomas Wolfe's line about not being able to "go home again" fits Maschik's situation for when going home after some time, the visitor finds home has changed, and so has the visitor. In the case of Viper, boy, has she changed.

I needed a new series to check out and this one's name attracted my attention. It might have been the name that pulled me in but it was the characters that grabbed me and held me. From the first few pages, I was fascinated by Alina Maschik, aka Viper, and I was certain I would grow to like her even more. I was right.

Then as I got to know her friends and colleagues, my interest grew even more. I liked these people - even the jerk ex-fiancé who slowly became not quite such a jerk. I liked Stephanie a bunch though she seemed a tad naive for an FBI agent but that might have just been me. I really liked Hawk. And the Raven.

Now, the two main bad-asses, Viper and Hawk, are far too good to be believable but what made the series a hoot and kept me reading was that I truly enjoyed the fact that they were so good at their job. Not superhero kind of awesome but definitely in the "do NOT tick me off" kind.

When I finished the first book, I knew I had enough info to write about the series but not only do I always read at least two adventures in any series, I could not NOT read the next one. Then the third. Then I was done except I looked again and darned if a 4th wasn't waiting and calling to me so naturally I had to keep going.

If you read the series, and I hope you do, please understand going in that Viper and Hawk are, as I said, too too good. And just have fun with it.