This is the first book that I have read by Catherine Coulter. I don't know where I have been, since POWER PLAY is the eighteenth book in her FBI Thriller series! I didn't exactly feel like there were chunks of information missing by not reading the previous books; the story still stood alone. There were, however, references to the characters' pasts which intrigued me. I will probably look up some of the previous books.

The plot moves along rapidly, or I should say the plots move along rapidly. There are two main storylines involving two separate cases. Both cases are quite nerve-racking and the jumping back and forth between them creates confusion and tension. But I have no complaints; this is what a book in the "thriller" genre is supposed to do.

Natalie Black, a U. S. ambassador to England, is a victim of one disaster after another. Her fiancé dies in a car crash; she is attacked by someone in England, and the British press even starts to hint that she is responsible somehow for her fiancé's death. She returns to the United States and the attempts on her life continue...

In the second story line, Sherlock and Savich, a married couple who also happen to be FBI agents, have a psychopath following them and planning their murder as revenge for the deaths of members of his family.

Back to Natalie Black--who has a beautiful sportswriter daughter named Perry who is also under fire--possibly because of her mother's situation? Add in a super hot FBI agent named Davis Sullivan who is assigned to guard Perry, and there is an exciting sub-plot.

As I mentioned before, the storyline progresses smoothly but rapidly. A few times, in the beginning, I had to go back and clarify names. As the story progressed, the characters' personalities became clearer and I had no trouble discerning them from each other. Ms. Coulter has the power to create heroes that are likeable and easy to sympathize with. She also creates villains that are amazingly flawed. She does keep some people a mystery until the end and when she makes her final play, it finally all makes sense.

I intend to read some of Catherine Coulter's previous books and since she set up the next one so enticingly in the epilogue, I will probably read The Lost Key too!