Without A Trace by Sandra K. Moore

Back cover:  She could smell trouble a mile away...

U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant Nikki Bustillo has tracked her target to the bowels of a phantom ship-and she refuses to lose the scent now.  But when her overseas contact is brutally murdered on the streets of Hong Kong, Nikki's manhunt is compromised.  The mission came from the higher-ups at her alma mater, Athena Academy, and failure isn't an option.  Her only hope: the help of a maverick, martial arts expert, police detective.  Nikki and her new partner will follow the enemy's shadowy trail out of the ocean and to the ends of the earth-even after their invisible foe turns the skilled trackers into vulnerable prey.

New to me: I don't remember reading anything by Sandra K. Moore before, so the author is new to me.

Why I chose the book:  Athena Force!  This book is the next in the Athena Force continuity.  Each former Athena Academy alum has brought  different skills and abilities which have made reading their stories fun and exciting.  Nikki has perfect memory, martial arts skills, and genetic altering so that her sense of smellis heightened so much she can sense danger, fear, arousal, etc. before she sees it.

I got a little confused trying to keep up with the various Chinese Triad gangs, but enjoyed the book, and the sub-plot of trying to find the two kidnapped girls.  I hope we'll hear how that ended in a later book.

Excellence rating: *** Pretty Good

Steaminess: Romantic

Lynn