I have read and enjoyed several books by Karen Robards. I don’t get her books as often as I do some by other authors but I do enjoy them when I pick one up. I recently found the hardback version of Bait on the bargain table of the local bookstore and decided to pick it up.

FBI Agent Sam McCabe and his partner E.P. Wynne were on the trail of a serial killer. The killer would contact Sam with clues, not giving away any useful information until it was almost too late. Madeline Fitzgerald was in New Orleans for a business meeting when she was attacked in her hotel room. She managed to get away and later found out that another woman with the same name staying at the same hotel had also been attacked when Sam talked to her about what had happened. Maddie had some secrets in her past and talking to the police and FBI made her very nervous. She ended up under the protection of the FBI when another attempt was made on her life. She was convinced that the best way to catch the killer was to let the FBI stay with her and use her as bait. The situation was complicated by the fact that Sam and Maddie were attracted to each other and by Maddie’s past that didn’t want to remain buried.

Bait started off with sam and Wynne arriving at the scene of a murder. They had been trailing the killer for weeks, always arriving too late. The killer didn’t leave behind much evidence and the victims didn’t seem to have any connections to each other. The killer would call Sam shortly after a victim was found with a vague clue and call a few more times with other clues before the next victim was found. Usually only the last call before Sam found a victim had enough information to be helpful, but by that time it was too late to prevent the murder. The killer considered it a game and seemed to enjoy taunting Sam. He felt like the fact that Maddie managed to escape was the break they’d been waiting for. There was a little bit of action added into some of the scenes that did help to keep the pace moving and the book interesting. The book managed to have a fairly fast pace even though it wasn’t action packed. The book covered a few weeks, with the majority of events taking place over the span of a few days.

Bait was a romantic suspense book that was mainly focused on the mystery. Sam was trying to stop a killer that didn’t leave much evidence. There didn’t seem to be any connection between the victims. Maddie’s involvement offered the first chance for Sam to talk to someone and possibly get a description while also making things complicated. Maddie was convinced that she had been targeted because of her past that she had been trying to keep hidden for years. More was going on than what there seemed to be at first. I did think the mystery was interesting even though it could have been stronger. Sam and some other FBI agents spent a lot of time with Maddie. They discussed the case several times and some of their work on the investigation was shared. There wasn’t a lot of details about the work the agents did on the case when they weren’t guarding Maddie.

Maddie ended up in several dangerous situations throughout Bait, starting with the scene when she woke up and discovered someone in her hotel room. The ways that Maddie got out of those situations were a bit unbelievable at times. Usually if a main character ends up in a dangerous situation, the reader will figure that they will manage to get out someway, so it wasn’t a surprise that Maddie survived. Even when I am almost certain that I character will get out of a situation, it makes the book more realistic if what happened was as least somewhat logical. Robards has done this sort of thing in several of her other books that I have read and while I do enjoy her books overall, those sections have me rolling my eyes because they are just too convenient and outlandish. It can get old and end up destroying the suspense instead of building it. I do think that Robards reeled that tendency in a bit for this book which made it more entertaining for me. The situations Maddie got into and how she got out weren’t as extreme as some similar scenes in other Robards books have been.

Sam and Maddie first met after she was attacked. When it was decided that Sam and a few other agents would watch over Maddie, even staying with her, they ended up spending a lot of time together. Sam and Maddie were attracted to each other and both fighting the attraction for different reasons. That didn’t last too long and they became intimate, complicating the situation even more. Some readers might be bothered by how fast Sam and Maddie jumped into a sexual relationship. There weren’t many sex scenes in the book, but the ones that were included were descriptive. The growing relationship was important to the plot without detracting from the mystery. Two of the FBI agents were also developing a relationship.

Maddie was stressed about the advertising agency she owned when Bait started. She was hoping to land a big account that would turn things around for the company. She was good at her job and worried about her employees. She managed to get away from a killer without completely falling apart. Maddie didn’t want to talk to the FBI because she was hiding her own secrets. She tried to act confident all the time, though she did have doubts and fears. One of her biggest fears that she kept hidden was her fear of the dark. She could be really stubborn and even argumentative at times. She was a likable character for the most part.

Sam was determined to find the killer and was pushing himself hard to reach that goal. Sam had a reputation for doing things his own way and some of the other agents considered him hard to work with. Sam didn’t worry about stepping on toes when he showed up at a crime scene and he didn’t play jurisdiction games. He wasn’t always the most polite. He and Maddie were the most developed characters since they were the main characters. Some other agents and Maddie’s employees turned up in several scenes without being that developed. That didn’t bother me since they were more supporting characters.

I enjoyed Bait even though I thought the mystery could have been a little stronger. People looking for a book with a strong mystery will probably want to pick a different book. People that have enjoyed other books by Karen Robards may also like this one.

Karen Robards Book Reviews

Beachcomber ~

Recommended: Yes