Caught By A Clown by Sandra Crowley

Order, rules, and the law; what else is there? David Graham has been working undercover for several years trying to get enough evidence to put away a mob boss. In Caught By A Clown, a “fly by the seat of her pants” journalist Stacie stumbles into his investigation and shakes up his whole world.

A spontaneous freelance journalist on a mission of mercy finds herself entangled with a methodical undercover FBI agent out to settle a score. Stacie Monroe’s spontaneity lands her in hot water again when her best friend’s little brother disappears and Stacie trails him to a nudist resort. To get inside the exclusive oasis and convince him to return home, she must blend in, a move tailor made to shock her oh-so-proper family and renew efforts to bring her in line. That’s exactly what Special Agent David Graham intends to do when she interferes in his case. Yet, the soft-hearted temptress challenges his resolve, revealing the path to a love he thought impossible. Will that love survive when he betrays her in order to unravel the final twist in his case and convict a vicious killer?

Special Agent David Graham can’t believe his luck. After several years undercover infiltrating Mick Caputo’s organization, he had been ‘made.’ He doesn’t even know who figured out he was FBI, but someone stabbed him in the back, literally, and his bosses at the FBI pulled him instead of letting him work it into his cover. And his partner had changed one of their plans during the raid and gotten killed. Now, when he thinks he has figured out where the mob boss’s niece’s fiancé, Alan Walsh, is hiding out, his new boss wants to pull his from the field! This could be their last chance to get Caputo, especially before Walsh leaves the country. And now there is a suspicious woman right where he has found Walsh.

Stacie Monroe has a big heart and unconventional outlook. She has never fit in with her upper-class family and they have never understood her roaming lifestyle. But her big heart has leads her to more trouble than she can handle this time. Her best friend has asked for help finding her little brother, Alan, who is on the run from the mob! Stacie tracks him down at a nudist resort where he gives her the slip. And she gets tangled up with Agent Graham instead.

Stacie wants to help her friend, and thus her friend’s brother. Her friend wants Alan to leave the county, but Stacie thinks the only chance he has (to not get killed) is to go to the police. She isn’t going to let David get away and run Alan off/out of the country. David doesn’t want anything to do with Stacie and the craziness around her! But she is the only lead he has to Walsh and the chance to get Caputo. After loosing a partner and spending several years on this case, he just can’t let it go. Even if it means taking off against orders while his new boss is on vacation. So he has just under a week to get Walsh and convince him to testify… All while running from the hit men Caputo has sent after Walsh!

Caught By A Clown is a lot of fun. Both David and Stacie start a little stereotyped, but quickly become their own stuck-in-a-rut people. They do bring out the best and worst in the other, and that is fun to watch! It is also nice to see them grow as characters and realize that they have been hindered in the past by their situations and outlooks. David needs to follow rules because he is in the FBI, but there is no reason to be totally hidebound and unbending in everything. He obviously needed to relax some. Just as Stacie needed some structure in her life. Wild and fancy-free does not work for everything, as she learned the hard way. Here is a case of opposites attracting and balancing each other in just the perfect way. It felt like they were finally becoming full adults in the end (hey, I am still working on that, so I can’t say much). I also found some of the support characters just as much fun. Like Stacie’s eccentric aunt and David’s old FBI buddy.

Caught By A Clown never slows down. There is the chase across half the country after the ‘we hope’ witness, Walsh. There are a couple of little mysteries to solve. There is lots of running from the bad guys. Then there are more bad guys called in! Darn fictional mob, with a never ending supply of bad guys to send after people! Oh, then we have to see if the FBI gets the big bag guy in the end, the chase that started the whole story in the first place. Caught By A Clown is one action packed adventure, with a romance added on the side.