My biggest criticism of Malicious Intent is its setup. Gil Dixon is a US Secret Service Agent who primarily works in counterfeiting. In case you didn’t know, for some reason, the Secret Service—in addition to Presidential protection—is also the main agency that goes after counterfeiters. So, when some counterfeit bills turn up, deposited by Hedera, Inc., Dixon decides to check it out. Of course, the founder and CEO of Hedera just so happens to be Ivy Collins, his childhood best friend whom he hasn’t spoken to in decades. And here’s where I have trouble with the setup: The Secret Service gets called in over a paltry $200 in counterfeit bills and they send someone with a clear conflict of interest to sort it out—and once it’s revealed that there is trouble (not related to the counterfeiting), Gil and his team just sort of stick around and protect Ivy. The central setup of the novel just doesn’t convince me that it’s believable. But this is fiction, so let’s roll with it. 

 

Someone is out to get Ivy Collins. Or maybe her cutting-edge prosthetic technology. Or maybe access to her computer systems. Whatever they want, they certainly didn’t expect have to contend with the Secret Service. As Gil and team track down the bad guys and solve the mystery, Gil and Ivy repair their broken relationship. And it’s that relationship that forms the interesting part of the story. The secret of the mystery ends up lying in that family history. It’s a compelling, heartfelt tale that, unfortunately takes the B-plot to Malicious Intent’s less-interesting but serviceable A-plot. 

 

Romantic suspense always has that struggle between how to weigh the romance and suspense. In this case, we get a pretty generic suspense/mystery and a sweet story of friendship reconnecting. Normally, the focus on suspense is a good thing, but here it overshadows the heart of the book—and lessens the surprise twist to the mystery. Malicious Intent is a good novel, but its emphases are off. Admittedly that’s just my perspective. Blackburn’s characters are more compelling than her plot, so the places of the story where the characters shine work best for me.