07/27/2020

This exciting series launch from bestseller Johansen (the Eve Duncan series) introduces Alisa Flynn, a special operative of the CIA, who was recruited at 13 when she was a street orphan in Caracas, Venezuela. Three truckloads of a military guerrilla group descend on St. Eldon’s Academy, a girls’ school in Morocco. Besides intending to hold the richest girls for ransom and selling the rest, they want to take possession of the school’s stable of thoroughbred horses, the paperwork regarding their pedigrees, and teenager Sasha Lawrence. Sasha is known as “something of a horse whisperer,” who “can coax a horse to do almost anything for her.” Unfortunately for mercenary Jorge Masenak, the leader of the intruders, she’s also Alisa’s ward. Alisa puts her career and life on the line to track down Masenak and save Sasha, with the aid of Gabe Korgan, a Nobel Prize winner, inventor, and billionaire, and Margaret Douglas, a fellow animal whisperer who’s appeared in another Johansen series. The wildly over-the-top characters and plot race toward a fittingly extravagant conclusion. Johansen’s fans will be in heaven. Agent: Andrea Cirillo, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Sept.)

"The wildly over-the-top characters and plot race toward a fittingly extravagant conclusion. Johansen's fans will be in heaven."—Publishers Weekly

"Though Flynn is a new star in Johansen's pantheon, her personification of familiar tropes of female strength, power, sexual attraction, and supernatural talents will make her an instant hit with Johansen's many loyal fans."—Booklist

"The characters are refreshing and new and the story is thrilling for the reader to follow along, especially if this is your first time reading an Iris book."—RedCarpetCrash.com

Chaos is what author Iris Johansen creates so easily - a book filled with conflict, danger, a touch of romance when it is least expected by the couple, with elements ripped from the very headlines. In other words, a book that is really, really hard to put down... Looking for action, danger, drama, romance, surprises, secrets, with even more totally unexpected twists and turns? Then Chaos is what you need in your hands!—FreshFiction.com

"I absolutely loved the slow-burn development of Alisa and Korgan's relationship... I felt so emotionally invested in them, and their exchanges will keep you on the edge of your seat. Johansen knows how to write wonderfully crafted characters and dialogue."—BookReporter.com

"Dive into the explosive world of Iris Johansen, where villains get exactly what they deserve and the good guys — eventually — win the day. That's a world I want to live in!"—Tami Hoag, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"Johansen keeps readers on the edge of their seats."—Booklist

"Just by seeing the Iris Johansen name....you know [it] will be an explosive, unforgettable story."—Suspense Magazine

"Johansen never ceases to inspire, shock, reveal and unveil secrets, and draw you into a story from beginning to end."—Suspense Magazine

Narrator Elisabeth Rodgers’s faultless accents and inflections make each of the characters in this audiobook fully believable. Johansen’s new mystery introduces CIA agent Alisa Flynn. The story starts when a school of teen girls in Africa is kidnapped by terrorists seeking ransoms. Flynn’s ward, Sasha, is among them. Rodgers’s voice fills with venom as she delivers the criminals’ threats. She also ramps up the sexual tension when Alisa becomes involved with Gabe Korgan, a billionaire tech genius. The titular “Chaos” is a barely tamed racehorse who will allow only Sasha to ride him—and ride him she must, to save him and herself. Rodgers is even called upon to create a voice for the horse, and she comes through with flying colors. E.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

2020-07-29
The latest stand-alone from the chronicler of Eve Duncan and her remarkable family tells the story of an equally remarkable bunch of freelance law enforcers arrayed against a nefarious mercenary.

Jorge Masenak has outdone himself with his latest coup: Stealing a dozen racehorses lodged at Morocco’s St. Eldon’s Academy, kidnapping 59 students from the girls school, passing them around to his confederates, and threatening to execute them if any government agency makes a move against him. Cue the entrance of rogue CIA agent Alisa Flynn, who promptly persuades tech mogul Gabe Korgan to help her rescue the girls. Alisa is particularly close to Sasha Nalano, her official ward, who’s a wizard with horses, and Sasha is especially close to Chaos, an ill-tempered stallion with preternatural speed—so close that girl and horse communicate telepathically. Enlisting soldier of fortune John Gilroy to help with logistics, Alisa and Korgan quickly devise a plan to rescue the hostages. But Masenak escapes, taking Sasha and Chaos, whom he’s determined to have Sasha train on a dramatically accelerated schedule so he can be raced one-on-one against Nightshade, the Triple Crown winner owned by ruthless lumber baron Marcus Reardon. Instead of sweating the details of plotting or characterization, Johansen sets this modern swashbuckler in an alternative reality in which the heroes can infiltrate the villain’s armored strongholds at will, characters compare each other to Wonder Woman and Indiana Jones, and the software has powers as superhuman as the people who develop and use it in the field.

Everything and everybody is larger than life yet somehow smaller than life as well.