Operation Hero’s Watch

Let me start by admitting that I’ve been Justine Davis fan since I read her first novel, Hunter’s Way, back in 1991, and I’ve yet to read a novel she’s written that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed, and that’s certainly been the case with her Cutter’s Code series, Cutter being one astonishing, practically psychic dog who’s part detective, a fierce protector, and one heck of a matchmaker too, all of his glowing characteristics figure prominently in this novel as well as the previous ones, and I’m giving this novel a 4.5 star rating, primarily for just one reason, which I’ll get to shortly.

As the novel opens we encounter Jace, trudging along the road, both he and his backpack getting thoroughly drenched in a Washington state rainstorm, as we learn that he’s been hitchhiking his way north from southern California, too broke to fly, and all because of a promise he made a decade ago to his best friend, Cory Grant. The promise–to help Cory’s little sister, Cassidy (Cassie) who had crushed on Jace from the time she was 7 years old, if she ever needed his help, and when she finally does call for his help, he keeps his promise and heads north.

A car eventually stops to offer him a ride and shelter from the downpour, and unbeknownst to Jace, the driver is Rafe, a Foxworth operative. Foxworth is a very unusual firm, known only by word of mouth, with very unusual employees, and with a very unusual mission–helping those deemed worthy, to solve their problems and right the wrongs that regular law enforcement simply cannot or will not address. The reason Rafe stopped to pick up Jace and practically begged Jace to get into his car was Cutter, who wouldn’t stop barking his head off in the back seat of the car until Rafe got the message and pulled over to pick up Jace. While driving, Rafe explains Cutter’s many abilities, which Jace takes with a grain of salt, as he does Rafe’s description of Foxworth and what it does, but he’ll soon learn the truth about both Cutter and Foxworth.

Cody had told his younger sister that if she ever needed help to call Jace, since Cody didn’t stick around long after their parents died in an airplane crash, leaving his sister to run the family flower shop alone and live in their parents’ mortgage-paid home. The reason for Cassidy’s phone call to Jace was her fear that she had a stalker, but with no evidence other than the feeling that she’s being watched, a guy hanging around outside her flower shop, and a brief glance at a shadow on her window shade one night, the police were of no help whatsoever. When Jace shows up, he’s stunned to find that little tag-along Cassie has grown into a beautiful woman, and Cassie is as attracted to Jace as she always was. It doesn’t take long before Cutter, the matchmaker, starts herding them closer together, but there’s a whole lot more to this novel than a matchmaking mutt.

Cody and Cassie had wonderful, loving parents, and, as Cody’s best friend, Jace soon came to be treated as a member of family and spent as much time at their home as possible, since his own home life was horrific thanks to a vile, controlling, cruel and verbally abusive father and a mother too cowed to do anything about it. Although his father walked out on Jace and his mom when Jace was 18, he left them with a mountain of gambling debts, no source of income other than the several part-time jobs Jace and his mom could find, and because they couldn’t afford to keep their house, they’d moved from tiny apartment to tiny apartment trying to pay off those debts and move forward, a seemingly impossible task. The one issue I mentioned at the outset was the lack of any kind of explanation for why any man would hate, demean and verbally abuse his only son, especially a son who was well behaved, smart, kind, got good grades but in his own out-of-box fashion and who certainly didn’t deserve the way he was treated. I could understand it if he knew or believed that Jace wasn’t really his son, but that wasn’t the case here, and it felt liked a dropped stitch in knitting–I wanted to fix it and find out the reason for his father’s anger and hatred of his only son. The kind of abuse Jace endured left him with deep emotional scars, and once he and Cassie start talking and reminiscing, since he’s living in her guest room, we see just how deep those scars still are, more than a decade later, making him feel small and unworthy, while Cassie sees him as a good, kind, strong, hard-working, honest, reliable, and fair man of integrity, and she wants to help Jace see himself as she sees him. Cutter is only too happy to keep nudging them together, which he’s done in the previous books in this series and which is utterly sweet and charming, even to a hardcore cat person like me.

As Jace and Cassie become reacquainted, their attraction to one another slowly builds, and while Cassie has no problem accepting her deep feelings for Jace, with his father’s voice in his head, no money, no skills, and no prospects, and knowing that Cassie is his best friend’s little sister, Jace has no faith that his coming to Cassie’s aid will become anything more than that. While all the sizzle between them builds, so too does what brought them back together, Cassie’s stalker. Rafe and the techies at Foxworth can’t seem to find a reason anyone would be stalking her, but with cameras in place behind her flower shop, we soon know that she’s not imagining things, and there’s a whole lot more to this mystery than a mere stalker, and as the danger and suspense build to one nail-biter of a finish Jace and Cassie’s relationship deepens as well, and the combination of the two made this novel impossible to put down, which is why I started writing this review at 4:30 a.m., which is when I got to the heartfelt HEA ending.

Operation Hero’s Watch was an excellent, well-written romantic suspense novel, and if you’re not already hooked on the Cutter’s Code series, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

The latest in the mystery/romance series starring Cutter the detective/matchmaking dog. Enough back story is provided, so it can be read as a stand alone, but when you are finished, you are going to want to read the previous books. Wonderful characters and an intriguing plot, make this a terrific read.

Years ago, Jace Cahill had made a promise to his (then) best friend Cory Grant, to take care of his sister, Cassie, if ever he couldn’t. Ten years later, he gets the call and hitchhikes from southern California to Washington state. On the way, he is picked up by Rafe Crawford, of the Foxworth Foundation, at the insistence of Cutter the dog. They get to Cassie’s house and she tells them that she has a stalker, but not enough evidence for the police to get involved. Helping people is what the Foxworth Foundation does, so while Rafe heads an investigating into who and why Cassie is being stalked, Cutter works on getting the two together. Jace had had a horrible excuse for a father, but Cassie and Cory’s parents, had stepped in and given him all the positive reinforcement that they could. When Jace’s father finally let his wife and son, he left them with crippling debt. They could no longer afford to live in their house and had disappeared from Cassie’s life. Instead of declaring bankruptcy as most people would have done, Jace and his mother had spent the last 10 years working very hard to pay it off. But Jace drops everything, because he made a promise. He finds the grown up Cassie even more enchanting that the girl he knew, and she has adored him since the age of five. Can they find the stalker, and keep Cassie safe. Can Cassie stop Jace from continuing to hear his father’s verbal abuse in his head? Do they have a future together? What does Cory have to do with the situation?

I received a free, advanced copy of this book from NetGallery.com. This was my unbiased and voluntary review.