When we last saw Bart and Allison Allan, they had just returned from guarding a hacienda full of celebrities from the potential of a terrorist threat. Now in “Sapphires and Smugglers,” they’ve only been home from that adventure just long enough for Allison to go through training to become a full-fledged Interpol agent, they are pulled into their next assignment when Bart, who was on a mission in Sri Lanka, sends a coded message – agent down. Allison immediately pleads her case to be one of the agents to go to Bart’s aid, and along with her goes Oz, a great co-worker but one who has a crush on Allison. They are to travel as husband and wife journalists, and this cover puts Allison in a compromising position. How can she pretend to be in love with someone besides Bart, and how can she toy with Oz that way, knowing that his pretense is not so pretend?
Off they fly to Sri Lanka by way of Bangkok. Bart requested that an agent meet him in Sri Lanka, but the message was sent from Bangkok, and if he really is down like his message said, it would probably be wisest to start with his last known location. Allison, an expert in languages, spends the international flight learning the secret codes employed by the anti-terrorist organization she has recently joined, and feels up to the task at hand.
But through a strange twist of events, Allison loses her memory, and has only Oz’s word that she is who she says she is. But that’s just the thing – Oz says her name is Amy Teale, and that she’s his wife.
Eventually she and Oz come face to face with Bart and her memory returns. She helps Bart bring down that group of terrorists and is ready to go home, but Bart goes back to rescue Oz, who barely makes it out.
I didn’t enjoy this book quite as much as the others in the series. I thought that the plotline of Allison losing her memory was a little bit cliché, as was Oz’s hope that she would fall in love with him. I also didn’t get why Bart didn’t bust Oz’s chops for not telling Allison the truth about her identity. But the suspense was good and as usual, we are transported to another place and culture as we read. So it wasn’t my favorite LDS suspense novel, but it was still pretty good.
(This book was published in 1998 by Covenant Communications.)
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