The Cove (FBI Series #1) by Catherine Coulter

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Secrets, surprises, and suspense are the hallmarks of the novels in Catherine Coulter's bestselling FBI series of contemporary suspense-thrillers. That's been true ever since the first volume, The Cove, came out in paperback in 1996 and wowed readers with the chilling story of a woman on the run who takes refuge in a picture-perfect town on the Oregon coast. When the quaint little town turns out to be not as idyllic as it seems, Sally Brainerd must rely on an unexpected ally: the undercover FBI agent assigned to pursue her, James Quinlan. The dramatic story that unfolds is one of murder, deception, betrayal, and unforeseen love -- in a town that's famous for its ice cream. Now this landmark volume is being released for the first time in a hardcover edition that will delight every Coulter fan. Sue Stone

From the Publisher

The Cove is a quaint little postcard town made up only of old folk who sell the World's Greatest Ice Cream - a secret recipe that brings lots of tourists into town.

Into The Cove comes Sally Brainerd, daughter of murdered Amory St. John of Washington, D.C., seeking sanctuary, and FBI Special Agent James Quinlan who's undercover and after her. He's got a murder to solve, and he believes she's the key. But is she really?

Publishers Weekly

"So perfect, like a Hollywood set," FBI agent James Quinlan thinks as he enters The Cove, a seemingly tranquil, picture-postcard town situated on the Oregon coast. Quinlan has been on Sally Brainerd's trail since her arms-dealing father, Amory St. John, was murdered. Sally is the key witness, and it's Quinlan's job to bring her in. Quinlan, whose cover is working as a PI hired to find an old couple who had mysteriously disappeared three years earlier, quickly learns that when he starts asking questions, bad things start happening. Coulter (The Nightingale Legacy), whose contemporary suspense novels are, unfortunately, few and far between, delivers a fast-paced, solidly structured read despite the occasionally cartoonish characters. (Apr.)

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Interviews & Essays

Table of Contents

Interviews & Essays

In November 2003, Putnam released Catherine Coulter's very first FBI thriller -- originally published only in paperback -- in a hardcover edition. To celebrate, Ransom Notes asked Coulter about the origins of her endlessly popular series and her plans for the future:

My brain has always worked in a mystery sort of way. I'd say that regardless of the genre I'm writing, a good 80 percent of my books have mysteries in them. With Beyond Eden, Impulse, and False Pretenses -- my first contemporaries -- the mysteries were an integral part from the beginning. But, with The Cove, I moved beyond using mystery and suspense around a central story of a romantic relationship, to a nearly pure suspense thriller.

When I started work on The Cove I was really frazzled, having just finished nine historical romances in a row for Putnam (three trilogies). The Cove was a real departure for me. Initially, Putnam wanted to bring it out in hardcover. But I squawked -- we were trying something completely new, and I didn't want to risk failing in hardcover. So The Cove came out as a mass market paperback original. As it turns out, it was the only one of the FBI series to come out in paperback first. Readers have been asking for a hardcover edition ever since, and now it's finally coming!

I've always gravitated to recurring characters. Still, when my sister gave me the idea for The Cove, I had not a single thought about a series. It was serendipity that James Quinlan was an FBI agent and worked with other agents. Then, when I got the idea for The Maze, I still wasn't thinking about a series as such, but the FBI was a natural fit to the story, and I couldn't resist using Savich (introduced as a secondary character in The Cove) again. By the third book, The Target, it all came together as a series.

Right now I'm writing another FBI thriller, Blowout, for the summer of 2004. This one is focused on Sherlock & Savich, with the return of Detective Ben Raven (from Blindside) of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C.

If readers want to contact me, my email address is readmoi@aol.com and my mailing address is P.O. Box 17, Mill Valley, CA. 94942. I answer all messages myself. It might take me a while, but I do get to them all.

My web site (www.catherinecoulter.com) is very user friendly, and I hope the newsletters there entertain. They come complete with monthly photos of Corky and Cleo (my two cats, who think of me as Motherfood), and feature news of other events in my life, like a real honor I had recently: I was invited to the National Book Festival. Not only did I meet the president and the cabinet at the gala at the Library of Congress; I was asked to be one of three speakers at the opening ceremonies at the White House. It was like a dream come true. Catherine Coulter