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Death Angel: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Linda Howard
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $7.84
You Save: $18.16 (70%)
New (47) Used (19) Collectible (1) from $7.74
Rating:  93 reviews
Sales Rank: 2120
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6 x 1.5
ISBN: 0345486544
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345486547
ASIN: 0345486544
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW - EXCEPTIONAL VALUE - EXCELLENT BUY
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Product Description
In Linda Howard’s gifted hands, second chances, unexpected romance, and unrelenting action combine into a riveting new novel of suspense. In Death Angel, bad girls can wake up and trust their hearts, bad guys can fight for what’s right . . . and dying just might be the only way to change one’s life.
A striking beauty with a taste for diamonds and dangerous men, Drea Rousseau is more than content to be arm candy for Rafael Salinas, a notorious crime lord who deals with betrayal through quick and treacherous means: a bullet to the back of the head, a blade across the neck, an incendiary device beneath a car. Eager to break with Rafael, Drea makes a fateful decision and a desperate move, stealing a mountain of cash from the malicious killer. After all, an escape needs to be financed.
Though Drea runs, Salinas knows she can’t hide–and he dispatches a cold-blooded assassin in hot pursuit, resulting in a tragic turn of events. Or does it?
Left for dead, Drea miraculously returns to the realm of the living a changed woman. She’s no longer shallow and selfish, no longer steals or cheats or sells herself short. Both humbled and thrilled with this unexpected second chance, Drea embraces her new life. But in order to feel safe and sound–and stop nervously looking over her shoulder–she will need to take down those who marked her for death.
Joining forces with the FBI, supplying vital inside information that only she can provide, Drea finds herself working with the most dangerous man she’s ever known. Yet the closer they get to danger, the more intense their feelings for each other become, and the more Drea realizes that the cost of her new life may be her life itself–as well as her heart.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 Best Linda Howard in Years!!! July 4, 2008
Elaine C McTyer (Dawson, GA USA)
45 out of 56 found this review helpful
This is truly a story of redeeming love, and I loved it. Linda Howard has taken some truly unlikeable characters and because of a life changing miracle given us two truly memorable characters. The first few chapters led me to believe it was like some of her other books and I started to put it down. But the cover said something about a miracle so I kept reading and am I glad I did.
Drea Rousseau is the mistress of a mobster. She is smart enough to act very dumb. She was raised poor and determined to have the best in life she could get. She has been his mistress for two years. At the age of 15 she got pregnant and when she lost the baby she lost her self. That was when she decided to go for everything she wanted. Using her body and her wits she has climbed to the penthouse of a mobster.
The assassin is unknown and we don't learn his name until the end of the book. The mobster uses him for the most deadly hits on his competitors. He always gets the job done and his very cold deadly glance gives even Salinas cold chills.
As the book starts he is facing Salinas, who wants to give him a bonus for his good work. A hundred thousand extra dollars, but the assassin asks for Drea for one time. He is testing how far Salinas will go to humor him. Drea considers herself a mistress not a ho. Now however she can't believe Salinas will give her to this man.
Drea spends four hours with the assassin and her life is changed in ways she doesn't understand. She asks him to take her with him, but he laughs and leaves. At that time her hatred for Salinas is unstoppable and she puts her get away plans into motion.
Salinas naturally calls on the assassin to take her out. From this point on I could not put it down. It is truly one of the best books by Howard I have read in many yrs. Do not miss this one.
Intense Read - Well Worth Time and $$$ July 2, 2008
M (California)
31 out of 37 found this review helpful
I agree with another reviewer that likened this story to "Son of the Morning" and "Cry No More." The story was as intense as those, but as emotionally fulfilling as "Mackenzie's Mountain," my favorite book of all time, not just of Ms. Howard's titles, to me. Drea/Andie reminded me more of Milla than Grace, and "The Assassin" definitely brought Diego to mind.
This was one of Ms. Howard's best efforts since "To Die For." While the two storylines were very different, the characters were just as rich - the good, the bad, and the non-critical-path-individuals. The story was not something that I saw coming, and I hung on through the entire ride. While the end was perfect, like another reviewer, I would have loved for the story to continue...but I have to admit I feel that way about all of the good books I read.
I read quite a bit, and am very particular in what I consider worth my time, effort, and hard-earned money. This was well worth all, even at the HC price.
I don't feel that I can discuss the specifics of why the story worked for me without including spoilers...so, as the title of this review states, it is an intense story, and well worth the time, effort, and expense.
Grabs you and keeps you reading July 11, 2008
M. Bryce (Suffolk, VA USA)
10 out of 18 found this review helpful
I've read a lot of Linda Howard's books, and this is one of my favorites. I got the audio download and I was hooked from the first chapter. Now I'll have to get the book because I'd like to read it this time. Well done and very unusual story line. I highly recommend it.
If you thought Linda Howard had lost it, think again. July 29, 2008
K. Hinton (Chicago, IL)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Drea Rousseau is sick of being a drug lord's plaything. Sure, it's nice not having to do anything more than watch the home shopping network and look pretty, but the whole playing dumb thing gets old kind of fast. Drea's boyfriend, Rafael Salinas, is a drug dealer, a criminal, and an unrepentant sinner whose method of solving problems runs more toward hitmen than mediation. And for a while Drea was content to sit by his side and play the part of the gangster's moll. For two years she played her part flawlessly, biding her time until she could leave him with her jewelry and dignity intact. She knows that Rafael doesn't love her, but she thought he at least cared about her some. But when he trades her body for a hitman's services, she learns that she was wrong. And though the hours she spends in the arms of a cold-blooded killer shouldn't matter to a girl whose boyfriend sells drugs for a living, Drea expected more. And when she doesn't get it, she chooses revenge instead. Siphoning two million dollars from Rafael's accounts, Drea runs for her life. She plans to start all over again in middle America where Rafael can't find her. Only she doesn't expect that he'll send the one man after her who she can't escape--the hitman whose touch she craves even as she runs from it.
I've heard a lot of talk on romance boards over the past few years saying that Linda Howard has lost her touch and that her newer books aren't as good as the old ones. Well, with Death Angel, she's proving her critics wrong. This book was fantastic, and quite possibly my favorite of all her works (though After the Night is still pretty high on my list). The hitman (Simon, whose name I neglected to mention because you don't find it out until later in the story) is a quintessential Howard hero. He's all militaristic stealth and alpha male aggression combined with protective lover and guardian of the innocent. In other words, everything you could want in a hero. At times he seems remote, distant, and unsure of himself, and you don't know if this is the sort of hero you can root for. But when he goes after Drea it isn't with any malice and at the same time he's hunting her he's cheering her on for giving Salinas a taste of his own medicine. And Drea is of the nouveau class of Howard heroines. At one time they were dumb as doornails (think Mary in Mackenzie's Mountain), but now it's like Howard has realized it's okay for a girl to have both beauty and brains. And Drea has them both in spades. This is a girl who plays dumb for two years while she secretly stores account numbers and exchanges real diamonds for fake ones. Drea doesn't delude herself into thinking she has an infinite amount of time with Rafael. In fact, she knows the moment someone prettier and younger catches his eye that she'll be out the door. Which is why she has her contingency plan. In fact, the only reason she takes Rafael to the cleaners is that he proves to her that she means nothing to him, so she decides to take what she thinks she's worth. And I was cheering for her even as I hoped Simon wouldn't catch her.
And all of this is without even mentioning the chemistry between these two characters, which virtually sizzles off the pages. From the moment they touch, the temperature went up in my apartment, and it didn't go down at any point when the two of them were together. I can't remember the last time I've been so emotionally invested and intently engaged by a book--particularly romantic suspense. Linda Howard is the reigning queen of the genre and Death Angel is just another weapon in her arsenal that proves why she got the title.
Very Moving and Deeply Romantic July 29, 2008
Avid Reader (Tulsa, OK)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
During the first love scene of the book I was so moved that I had to keep reminding myself that it was for all intents and purposes a rape. I was as appalled as Drea when Salinas didn't say "just kidding." What a total jerk. But wow, who wouldn't fall a little in love with the assassin after that very loving assault? Whew! Talk about raising the temp in the room.
Did anyone think he would kill really her? With Howard's skill as a writer she kept me hanging. I didn't think he would but .........I couldn't relax either. I wept for Drea after the accident, big nasty sobs that only the best writers ever get out of me. Actually she pulled it out of me several times. There was just something so touching and vulnerable about Drea.
I loved that she came back with second sight and would have loved more of that in the book. As it was I sure wasn't ready for it to end. A sequel with these two would be very appreciated. I definitely wasn't ready to say goodbye to either of them.
Well done Ms. Howard. I won't be forgetting these two characters any time soon.
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