On her weekend off, FBI agent Ruth Warnecki is hunting treasure in the caves of Maestro, Virginia.  She’s lost money in the past on fraudulent treasure maps, but this time is different.  Ruth’s research shows the map to 150 years old.  But before Ruth can gets to the right part of the cave, she becomes disoriented.  Several hours later she’s found unconscious by Maestro’s Sheriff Dixon Noble in the woods behind his house.  When she regains consciousness, Ruth can’t remember who she is or why she was out in the woods.  Dix starts her identity search by running her fingerprints.  Until he gets some answers, he invites Ruth to stay with him and his two teenage sons.

In the meantime, Agents Savich and Sherlock are tracking kidnappers to a hotel.  Savich received a note from the kidnappers, Moses Grace and Claudia, specifically written for him.  The kidnap victim is one of Ruth’s informants.  Since Ruth is due back from her vacation in a couple days, the team decides to cover without her until then.  When the hotel room explodes nearly killing Savich and Sherlock, they realize it was setup.  But who the setup was for isn’t determined until the kidnappers call Savich and state their personal vendetta to kill both agents as revenge.  The hunt to find and stop Moses Grace and Claudia is on.

When Ruth doesn’t show up to work on Monday, Savich and Sherlock go searching for her.  They find her at Dix’s house, at which point Ruth’s memory comes rushing back.  Her memory includes the fact that someone tried to kill her in the caves.  So begins the hunt for Ruth’s attempted murderer in the small town of Maestro.

There are too many plot devices in Point Blank to make any of them effective.  Is it a treasure hunt?  Is it an amnesiac damsel in distress?  Is it a murdering stalker chase?  Who hurt Ruth and why?  Who are Moses Grace & Claudia, and why are they trying to kill Savich and Sherlock?  Throughout the book, the reader is bounced back and forth between finding Ruth’s identity, finding Moses Grace & Claudia, and finding Ruth’s attempted killer.  The constant back and forth made the individual stories seem choppy.  With all the mystery stories to solve and questions to answer, none of them were given sufficient depth and time to be engrossing or suspenseful.

There is a developing relationship between Dix and Ruth.  During the one week the story spans this relationship between them, it is lukewarm at best.  Dix likes Ruth – he finds her interesting and funny.  But that’s as passionate as it gets.  Dix’s wife left several years ago and everyone assumes she’s dead.  He spends a lot of the book trying to decide if he can accept she’s not coming back and move on.  Reading about a man struggling to determine if he should pursue a relationship is not romantic.

While everything is wrapped up nice and pat in the end, it’s wrapped up too quickly and easily without sufficient support from the rest of the story.  Point Blank doesn’t maintain a level of suspense or romance to make it recommendable.

--Terry Lawrence