No Safe Place by Cat Shaffer

What happens if you’ve been in the field too long? If you overlook one area, it doesn’t matter how well you work all your other sources, you will still miss where your problem is. Sometimes it takes an outsider to show that there is No Safe Place.

Even small towns hide secrets…
When Lissa Williams loses both her job as editor of a hard-hitting news magazine, and her fiancé, in a one-two punch, she doesn’t plan to compound her troubles by first getting drunk and then into a sexy stranger’s bed. Nor does she expect to wind up in the tiny hamlet of Oslo, West Virginia, three months later, after her best friend is carjacked and left to die. Her shock at realizing that the first person she meets in Oslo is the same sexy stranger who had rocked her world in a single night, is softened by the realization he doesn’t remember her. But how long can she keep things that way when he insists on volunteering as her handyman at the wreck of a house she’s rented?
Folks in Oslo know Nat “Duke” O’Keefe as the man who’s taken over the town’s tow truck service. No one suspects his real job is undercover cop with an elite, multi-state task force investigating a sophisticated auto theft ring financing a global trade in illegal weapons. When a beautiful woman shows up in the two-bit town of Oslo, his boss orders him to cozy up to the town’s newest resident and figure out just what she’s up to. That suits him fine, until the sparks between them light a strange remembrance, a tinder of desire, and danger that may kill them both.

Lissa Williams is the newest person in Oslo, West Virginia. Three months ago she was fired as editor from the magazine she had turned from women’s fluff to political news and lost her high society fiancé. After her best friend, Gina, came up to help her move and was on the way home, Gina was carjacked and left on the highway to die. Lissa’s investigation into this leads her to a cult, The Children of Beloved, outside of Oslo. So Lissa has made up a story of running from an abusive boyfriend and being down and out of luck to move to this small town in the middle of nowhere. She has rented an old house in town and is planning to solve the crime against her friend. She just never planned on running into the guy, ‘Duke,’ she had the one night stand with when she visited Gina in Knoxville right after her break-up. Duke doesn’t seem to remember her, and hopefully she can keep it that way.

Duke runs Oslo’s tow truck service and only auto repair shop. He is also Nathanial O’Keefe; an undercover cop with a special unit trying to bust up a complex auto thief/drug ring that they also think is supplying arms to terrorist. They know that the thief of high end cars for a 100 miles around Oslo is three times that than the rest of the country, but can’t find who is doing it or where they are. Duke was sent into the area months ago to figure things out, “with little luck, though he is still doing better than anyone else in his unit.” Lissa is the first new person to show up since him and his boss tells him to keep an eye on her. So he offers her help around the old house when she starts having problems (real, not caused). He gets a threatening call (toward her) after she starts asking questions and poking around, and he gets worried. Then he finds info on the cult on her computer and gets even more worried for her. His boss/co-workers had checked out the cult and claimed it was clean, that there wasn’t anything there. But that didn’t mean it was safe for her. Then she leaves him a note and “goes undercover” herself into the cult. He knows she is in real trouble and goes after her. But with his ‘Duke’ identity, will he be able to get her out without risking her life even more?

No Safe Place is not bad but a bit predictable. I do have a few problems with the story. Oslo is supposed to be a very small town, only a few stores, one restaurant and such, yet no one realizes Duke is the undercover cop? Come on, these towns keep tabs on everyone, new and old neighbors alike! Just how often does the tow truck service change hands?? And Lissa is able to find where the stolen cars have been disappearing from several states away while Nat/Duke can’t figure it out after being there for months? Yet, Nat/Duke is one of the better/best undercover guys in his unit? Okay, there are some big whole in this story.

At the same time, No Safe Place had some good parts to it. Lissa didn’t just jump into things, but took the time to have someone from the police force show her both physical defiance training and gun handling/shooting before she ‘moved’ into the area she had last seen the stolen car. Lissa also had a background in crime investigation before she went into political reporting, so it was not as for fetched for her to go off on this investigation, especially since she is personally involved. She also had not just fake id’s but full backgrounds for her fake id’s (bank accounts, check cashing cards, etc). Nat/Duke also seemed to be well ‘into’ his cover. He also seemed to have well established check-ins and safe phones locked away to keep him safe. Even when he is running off half cocked, he still makes a quick call to let his boss know (even if it is a really quick call). That both of them suspect the other most of the time can be annoying, but it is very true for this situation. The cult thing is just crazy, but that is a cult for you. It is portrayed much as we see them on the TV, and I have no wish to get closer to them (have read about them in one book and never want to again, thanks for not going there).

No Safe Place is a fun little read that I did find enjoyable. I like how it points out that sometimes we can’t see what is right under our noses and sometimes it takes a fresh perspective to solve a problem. That is takes a strong, smart woman to show the sexy cop what he missed right in front of him sounds good to me.