Life seems to be turning around for Ned Kelly, a local lifeguard when he meets the sexy Aussie Tess McAuliffe. The two quickly fall in love and start looking forward to a future together when Ned joins his friends on a get-rich-quick scheme. They are going to work in a project to steal millions of dollars in artwork. All he has to do is help create a diversion by setting off alarms around the town. Unfortunately, things go terribly wrong and he is accused not only in the theft, but also in the murder of his lifelong friends and plotters.

Ned finds himself on the run as he tries to not only elude the FBI, but also learn who actually hurt his friends and framed him. He finds an unlike ally in the form of an FBI agent who specializes in art theft. She is brought in to assist in the investigation, and she has her doubts about where the investigation is going. Along with an old friend from New Zealand, she and Ned slowly identify the facts of what happened.

There is no shortage of action, and you will probably not be surprised that the agent and Ned end up starting a romance of their own. No great action tale works without a little bit of romance. The book does have its ups and downs as the story progresses. It ends up going in totally unrealistic tangents before being brought back to the primary storyline in order to continue the tale. Of course, no one reads Patterson for wonderful writing. It is the interesting characters and the quick-paced stories that draw his readers in, and this one does not fail in that area. It is one of his better books, when looking at a lot of the titles that seem to be spewing forth from his typewriter in more recent years.

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