The Job

This is another installment in the "Fox and O'Hare" series by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg.  Master thief Nicolas Fox, having finally been caught by FBI special agent Kate O'Hare, is now more or less working with the FBI to stop other bad guys. When a series of museums thefts seem to lead right back to Fox, Kate is brought in to track him down--again. But she doesn't think he would be so careless as to leave fingerprints or let his face be caught on a security monitor and he, in fact, denies being the thief. Clearly someone wants his attention, however, and when Kate catches the actual thief, a former accomplice of Fox's, they decide to go after the man she was trying to trap, the man who murdered her brother. Menendez is also the head of a major global drug ring; the problem is, no one knows what he looks like since he had extensive plastic surgery, so an elaborate trap is laid, targeted to his known weaknesses. An elaborate scam is conceived and carried out to make Menendez think a couple of clever but resource poor archaeologists have discovered the sunken wreck of the Santa Isabela, which carried hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold. Kate gets to spend time as a hostage with Menendez' sadistic bodyguard girlfriend while Fox and crew take Menendez on a make-believe ride to the site of the wreck--all accomplished with virtual reality and special effects. Light and entertaining reading when you just want something fun--there is a fair amount of sexual banter between Fox and O'Hare. Evanovich is a very competent writer and the characters are engaging. O'Hare is a strong female protagonist.