Kayla Shaw is a private banker in Arizona—smart and capable but underpaid and underappreciated. Rand McCree is a haunted man who paints landscapes in the Pacific Northwest, burning with a need for answers about the terrible event that shattered his world. They are two strangers with nothing in common . . . until their lives entwine—and explode.

On what at first appears to be an ordinary day, everything changes for Kayla, as she barely escapes a kidnapping attempt and finds herself accused of a shocking crime: the illegal laundering of hundreds of millions of dollars. Damned by lies and false "evidence," she is trapped with no place to run.

After five agonizing years, Rand has finally been offered what he desires the most: the name of his twin brother's murderer. Hungry for vengeance, he accepts a job with St. Kilda Consulting that will place him in the killer's orbit . . . and tantalizingly close to Kayla Shaw. The cold-blooded international criminal responsible for Rand's brother's death has targeted Kayla as his next victim. Since she can't turn to the police, who believe she's guilty as sin, she must place her life in the hands of the shadowy, secretive man who has come out of nowhere to protect her.

Suspicious of each other, needing each other, they are two against the world—with unknown enemies on all sides and even the government itself suspect—as the violence of the past erupts in the present. And now innocence alone will not be enough to keep Kayla Shaw alive. . . .

I generally like most Lowell books, but this one fell a little short for me. Starts out very promising, but after she sets up Rand's back story, for me it fell apart. I found most of the characters somewhat irritating or uninteresting. This one isn't a keeper for me.

I generally enjoy Lowell's books but this one was formulaic and lacked punch. The heroine and hero, Kayla and Rand, are all but stock characters, and their relationship is totally uninspiring. Luckily then for a great villain, Bertone, and his beauty queen wife, whose horrific crimes, committed on an international scale, fill this novel with much needed suspense.
If only, Kayla and Rand were up to the challenge...

In the latest of her 60-plus novels, Elizabeth Lowell tells a tale inspired by facts [relatively] `ripped from the headlines' - brutal wars far from home shores, money laundering, the smuggling of blood diamonds, the inter- and trans-national illegal arms trade, among other things. Kayla Shaw, a private banker in Arizona, is unwittingly forced to become involved in money laundering on a huge scale when her client's husband blackmails her into complicity. The philosophy from which the title derives comes from a statement by Kayla: "Even sin was innocent once. The rest is timing and opportunity."

Rand McCree is a painter who becomes a reluctant participant in events that ended in the murder of his identical twin brother. That loss has motivated him, five years later, to find and track down the killer, an evil man who is Kayla's nemesis as well, and their shared hatred for the man and all he represents propels the plot. Circumstances have them both in the employ of St. Kilda Consulting, a "necessary organization in today's world of transnational crime, failed and failing states, feral cities, and the just plan savage places in between. All the places where duly appointed and lawful governments are just short of useless and corrupt governments thrive." Another player is John Neto, described as "a black man speaking Scots Gaelic--who was also a former British intelligence officer--was presently chief of intelligence of a small African country that was besieged by transnational criminals from Russia, Brazil, Europe, and the UAE. And this man was being interviewed for American TV in a room in British Columbia, Canada, about a murderous Siberian gunrunner presently living the high life of a socialite in Phoenix, Arizona."

I had some problems with this book, not the least of which was that I found the protagonists rather two-dimensional. I also felt the adjective "feral" was much over-used. As well, the reader is aware of Rand's anguish at his brother's death almost from page one, and I didn't feel it was necessary to be reminded of it on what seemed like every page, e.g., "his twin's loss was still an open wound on his soul." But almost in spite of myself I was pulled into the intricate tale, the timeliness of which makes it one most readers should find enjoyable.

I will have to say I liked this more than The Wrong Hostage. I really just found Grace's character terribly annoying. However she and Joe are now married and in this book she is much more likable. Their son Lane appears off and on in it also and he is just a cool kid. That said this book kept my interest though Kayla's character was a little far fetched at times. I haven't read a lot of EL books but the ones I have the heroine suddenly becomes this alpha person taking on the bad guys and hello even taking the head villan out. Okay maybe that's EL's formula. Once in awhile that's okay but I find it a bit unbeliveable every time. I liked most of the characters, even the bad guys and when I say I liked them, it's meant that they lived up to their character protrayal. We can't list this with great literature but just for a few hours read it does what it's supposed to do; entertain. It's not the kind of book I will read again but it was an okay read and will probably read the next St Kilda book to see if our characters we've become acquainted with show up in it. I will say that EL must have a very qualified research department to come up with the correct banking procedures and even the information she would need to write about arms trade.

I bought this book about 2months ago and have only read about 50 pages, maybe when I'm stuck with nothing to read I'll pick it up again.