Without a Trace, by Nora Roberts (O'Hurleys! #4)

This week has been all Nora Roberts all the time, hasn't it? And it's not over yet! Because The O'Hurleys! are not just the triplets, and so this isn't a trilogy, but a quartet. I can't figure out if Without a Trace is an add-on or if it was a planned book all the time. The references in the other books to that mysterious Trace, whose occupation no one knows, seem to indicate the latter.

Trace O'Hurley had turned his back on responsibility and commitment long ago. Now he lived the way he wanted, did what he wanted when he wanted. But that was all going to change...

Gillian Fitzpatrick had responsibilities, commitments... her brother had disappeared and she was frightened and desperate. Trace was her only hope. He had the connections, the expertise...and the guts. But just what was she going to have to do to convince him to help her...?

I'm sorry to say this was the worst of the lot. Skin Deep had been bad enough, but at least I was interested in the plot. WAT never succeeded in engaging me, and while the hero was fine, the heroine was an idiot. A C-, and yeah, I know it's the same grade I gave SD, but some C- books are better than others, right?

In the first three books, I was always amused whenever they talked about Trace and so much was made of his mysterious occupation, which had him flitting around the world. An international jewel thief? A professional gigolo?, his sisters guessed. Well, all I can say is that these women have obviously never read a romance novel. What else could he be but a secret agent?

Trace is moping in Mérida, México, when he's approached by a beautiful readhead who asks for his help rescuing her brother and niece, kidnapped by a terrorist organization. Trace is on vacation and contemplating retirement because he's tired of his current life, but Gillian (the redhead) was sent to him by his mentor, Charlie, and her case actually has some relation to Charlie's recent death, so Trace accedes to her request.

And that's it, really. The rest of the book has them going to Morocco after the terrorists and putting in place a plot to rescue Gillian's family. And of course, falling in love in the process.

Ok, where should I start? Maybe with the main reason I almost threw the book against the wall, and that would be Gillian. Super-smart, genius Gillian, who, nevertheless, has no common sense whatsoever. Her insistence on being in on every single step of the plan, even when she has no training, expertise of even aptitude for this kind of work was bad enough, but her stupidity with regards to Trace's plans took the cake.

I mean, Gillian knows Trace is a professional and that they're in an extremely dangerous situation and that keeping their cover is paramount to their safety, and yet the twit keep getting offended by everything and making scenes! Trace gives her an order? Gillian gets offended and huffy and acts in ways that could break their cover. Trace asks her to stay in the room while he goes out? Gillian gets offended and huffy and acts in ways that could break their cover (stay inside a hotel room a whole afternoon? That's inhuman!). Trace tells her that since her cover is as his mistress, she needs to dress a bit less "convent"? Gillian gets offended and huffy and acts in ways that could break their cover. ("I'm not parading around half-dressed so you can keep up your image", she says. Well, you bird-brained idiot, you should, when keeping up his image means keeping up his cover so that he can rescue your brother!) And then there was the way she kept getting all bitchy and accusing Trace of incompetence because "they weren't doing anything", when Trace had spent all his time and effort laying out a perfectly workable plan. Are we supposed to admire this fool for crap like this?

The actual plot? The terrorist organization was laughable and I skimmed all through the final confrontation because I just didn't care. And the romance? No chemistry whatsoever, and, well, I've already hinted at how I felt about Gillian *g*, so I didn't want Trace to fall in love with her, I wanted him to ditch her.

This sounds awfully like a D review, not a C, and it would be, if it weren't for the O'Hurley family. In each of the books you do see some scenes from the past, when the junior O'Hurleys were travelling with their parents, playing in every two-bit nightclub they could find. And there was always some reunion scene... Frank and Molly come visit, the other two triplets in tow, and they meet their daughter's new guy. I didn't mention that in the other reviews because I just didn't feel it was too important in those particular books.

It's much more important here, though, because Trace's conflictive relationship with his father was by far the best part of the book. I loved the way Nora wrote the complex feelings each have for the other, Trace feeling his father doesn't care about what he wants, Frank afraid of his son considering him a failure. I wish more space had been devoted to this and less to the tiresome, preposterous plot and uninteresting romance.

I hate giving bad grades to book by one of my favourite authors, but this whole series, with only 1 book I'd recommend, was below par.