“Lights Out” is the first book in Natalie Walters’ new “Snap Agency” series from Revell Publishers, and as you may have guessed from the title it falls into the Romantic Suspense genre.  The characters who form the Snap team are the driving force behind this novel’s success, because they are well-drawn individuals with secrets, goals, and hidden pasts – plus plenty of potential to carry this series forward for at least several more books.  

While in some respects the story is fast-paced and action-packed, it is also very entwined in highly detailed international politics and espionage, which I found confusing and difficult to follow…  Usually I enjoy the intrigue and heart-pounding sequences of suspense novels, but this one just didn’t grab my interest because it often didn’t make sense to me.  The death count also seemed to rise very quickly – much more quickly than the agents’ progress on the case, frustratingly enough.

So, although this series has potential, after reading “Lights Out” I don’t plan to continue with the next books.  It was just too full of confusing details and not enough clearly-defined progress on a case that was rather vaguely explained to begin with.  Perhaps that’s just me not being inclined towards politics or technology, but it still means this series will be a pass for me in the future.    

“Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.”