When MI6 agent Seth Caleb becomes the revenge target of villainous Congolese warlord Hugh Bohdan, he correctly assumes that Bohdan's snare will eventually encompass his lover, Jane MacGuire. Hoping to get Jane out of the way while he pursues Bohdan, Seth ensconces Jane at MacDuff's Run, the Scottish Highlands estate of the cantankerous Earl John MacDuff. The laird is only too thrilled to provide Jane's security since it gives him further opportunity to try to convince her that they are related through MacDuff's ancestor, Fiona. Ever loyal to her adoptive parents, Eve Duncan (the anchor of Johansen's long-running, ever-evolving series) and Joe Quinn, and hoping to categorically discredit MacDuff's arguments, Jane uses her time in captivity to research Fiona's past. As Bohdan's lethal forces home in on MacDuff's Run, elements of Fiona's history provide Seth and Jane with the means to destroy Bohdan and secure their future. Johansen takes Seth's and Jane's passionate relationship to an unexpected new level and in doing so, creates an unstoppable team sure to inspire another tantalizing suspense series.

Bestseller Johansen's tense 29th Eve Duncan novel (after A Face to Die For) opens in Scotland, where forensic sculptor Eve's adopted daughter, artist Jane MacGuire, is "a guest at the estate of John Angus MacDuff, the Earl of MacDuff's Run." When not sketching, Jane researches the elusive history of Fiona, an ancestor of MacDuff, who suspects Fiona may also be an ancestor of Jane, based on a portrait of Fiona that reminds him of Jane. Meanwhile, Jane's significant other, MI6 agent Seth Caleb, is in Africa, where he's being hunted by Hugh Bohdan, second in command to the late dictator Niko Rozkor, whom Seth killed on a mission for MI6. Though Seth is desperate to see Jane again, he's staying away from her until Bohdan is no longer a threat. When Bohdan discovers Jane's tie to Seth, he sets out to harm her. Just as Jane uncovers a 200-year-old secret regarding Fiona, she must go on the run from Bohdan. Jane and Seth wind up overcoming almost insurmountable odds in their efforts to elude the vengeful Bohdan and readers will eagerly turn the pages to see what happens next. Johansen gives romantic suspense fans exactly what they want. Agents: Andrea Cirillo and Rebecca Scherer, Jane Rotrosen Agency (Sept.)

In Voice of Fear, the latest in Graham's long-running paranormal romantic suspense series, FBI agent Jordan Wallace worries about new partner Patrick's special gift of getting into another's mind--can he read her thoughts?--but must learn to trust him as they hunt for a nasty killer (400,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing). In Johansen's Captive, Eve Duncan's daughter, Jane, is happily married to Seth Caleb, but his troubled past means threats from a psychopath. Paradise police chief Jesse Stone returns in Mike Lupica's Untitled new Robert Parker thriller, though what happens next has yet to be revealed. In Maden's Clive Cussler's Hellburner, Juan Cabrillo and his Oregon crew face a particularly violent drug-smuggling criminal syndicate that has been passed down from father to son for generations. In Patterson and Dubois's Blowback, Liam Grey and Noa Himel are upended when President Keegan Barrett orders them to help execute his secret power grab; as CIA special agents, they must follow the president's directives but are sworn to uphold the Constitution. In Turow's Suspect, Clarice "Pinky" Granum--granddaughter of Turow stalwart Sandy Stern--is working second-tier cases as a private investigator and trying to recoup from the mistakes of a mislaid life when she's asked to help Highland Isle police chief Lucia Gomez, who has been accused of soliciting sex from three male police officers in exchange for promotions.