Ranger Kingston features in a thriller about facing terrorists in Nigeria. The group Boko Haram has a reputation for abducting girls and forcing them to marry their men. In SUNBURST, along with a young girl, Blessing, photographer Noemi Sutton has been kidnapped. Noemi is half-American and half-Nigerian, and Ranger, a Navy SEAL, wants her back.

The early action is full of the desperation of young women held by evil captors who keep threatening to kill people in their group. Nobody knows that for two days, the camp is being stalked by U.S. special forces who are determined to rescue everyone. They do, or there wouldn’t be much of a story. But the rest of the terrorists give chase.

This second book of the Sky King Ranch series focuses once more on young people who lead exciting and dangerous lives. There is always a romance, but so far, the bedroom is quite chaste and just a place to rest. This time, we get the enjoyable scenes of a traditional Nigerian wedding. Noemi’s prosperous uncle won’t hear of her being accompanied by a man who is not her husband. The pair previously met a few years ago in Key West, Florida, and only spent two weeks together, which seems to make it over the top that they have secretly loved each other ever since. But faced with the obligation to hold proper, respectful introductions to family and a big, fat traditional wedding, nobody is objecting. This is great fun, and it gets funnier by the minute. Since it’s a thriller, trouble continues to find our heroes. 

Even though I had read the earlier instalment, Sunrise, I found it confusing to return to spring in Alaska, where we meet the grown-up triplet boys and their sister, Larke, in the Kingston family. Ranger, Colt and Dodge are very similar, as triplets would be, and there is also a stranger in their midst, a young woman called either Tae, Jane, or Flo, depending, and Echo, Dodge’s fiancée, and now we get other viewpoints. It can be hard to keep track as some of the stories don’t pursue the same plot. 

I am fine with romantic suspense having a Christian message, and we could do with more hope and charity in the world. But Susan May Warren, at times, has her characters say that their faith has just saved their lives, when actually, it was a guy with a helicopter and a rifle who saved their lives, so as a thriller reader, I’m not convinced. SUNBURST keeps the chase scenes and body punches coming along, asks intelligent questions, and has a modern outlook, just what we need to fight global crime.