Going Dark by Monica McCarty ★★★★ (The Lost Platoon #1)

I’ve loved McCarty’s Highland Guard series so when I saw this debut into a new genre, I didn’t think twice. And, she didn’t disappoint!

SEAL Team Nine’s Retiarius Platoon goes on a covert, unsanctioned mission into Siberia, Russia and realizes too late that they’ve been set up. The survivors “go dark” and scatter until they can figure out who they can trust and take down the traitor. Senior Chief Dean Baylor is undercover as Dan Warren and working as the captain on a merchant boat in the Isle of Lewis, Scotland when he clashes with marine ecologist Annie Henderson and her group of activists. What was supposed to be a simple excursion out to an oil rig turns into a nightmare that threatens to expose Dean’s cover and more.

The story literally begins with a bang and the tension rarely lets up until the end. Dean is highly trained and formidable, which comes in handy when the naive but charming Annie Henderson gets them both in a fix. Despite their differences, they can’t get around their attraction to each other. There are plenty of harrowing moments and high intrigue as Annie gets herself mixed up in something that turns out to be more than a sit in on an oil rig. I really liked that there were two mysteries running concurrently with Dean and Annie struggling to avoid a romance.

I liked the premise of the story as well as the locales, which featured some of Scotland’s more obscure isles and towns. They’re very much a part of the plot, described vividly throughout. The mystery and suspense sometimes took a back seat to the romantic elements, which were pretty steamy, but overall the balance was on target. I liked both of these characters and them as a couple. While elements of the mysteries were resolved, the continuing story arc will be figuring out who was behind the catastrophe in Siberia. I’m definitely in for this series.

Book Info

• Release Date: September 5, 2017
• Pages: 351

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(I received an advance copy  from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review)