Protective Instincts - by Ann Jeffries (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Professor Dena Montgomery may be young, but she is a mathematical Olympiad with a genius-level IQ, earning a Ph.D. at sixteen. Yet, her large family calls her The Absentminded Professor, with good reason. Dena could recite the calculus for the Pythagorean theorem as if it were her address but couldn't, for her life, remember what was on her grocery list or whether she ate three meals on any given day. She may be shaped like a Barbie Doll, but still, she's no lightweight. Her family didn't leave her defenseless either. She's a martial arts master. That skill served her well one cold, blustery, snowy night when she left her office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to walk home and rescued two tender-aged children from being abducted. Although one man died, Dena's protective instincts kicked in to save the little boy and girl.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Police Lieutenant Darrius Pappas's detectives caught the case. Yet, he doesn't know what to make of the beautiful, yet the incredibly young woman in his interrogation room. Surveillance video footage at the murder scene showed that this Doctor Montgomery went all Jessica Campbell Jones Cage on the UNSUBs to save children not much older than toddlers. Darrius, young for his police position and unusually handsome, had never seen anything like her in his home country of Greece. Since coming to America to attend college and compete in the Olympics as a champion swimmer, Darrius has had more than his fair share of women. However, something about Doctor Montgomery creates an itch he can't seem to scratch.

The situation becomes even more complicated when a shadow enforcement entity created by the G7 takes over the case. Darrius is swept up into the FBI/CIA/Interpol task force and taken away to an undisclosed location. That's when he learns that Doctor Montgomery is much more mysterious than he could have imagined. When a second murder involving Dena Montgomery occurs during his investigation, Lieutenant Pappas's protective instincts kick in. He will risk everything to save Dena and the children and get to the bottom of both cases.

Review Quotes

Ann Jeffries infuses murder, suspense, and drama in Protective Instincts, a well-written police procedural set in Massachusetts and Maryland featuring Doctor Dena Montgomery and Cambridge Police Lieutenant Darrius Pappas. Time spent with the Montgomery family is always entertaining. The main characters are compelling and multi-dimensional. Dena's sister, Captain Genevieve Montgomery's need to protect their family is best understood by reading this series in order. As always, the interactions between Chuck and Vivian Alexander Montgomery and their offspring are enjoyable and bring a different facet to each story. Several recurring characters play significant roles in this novel, and readers see more of their lives.

This novel picks up where Country Cool, City Chic, Continental Class left off. The great characterizations will keep you turning the pages. I recommend this series. This novel is the twenty-fourth book in the Family Reunion---Wisdom of the Ancestors series, and Episode 5 in the Alex-Mont Kids Saga. I have read all of them up to this point. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

Joy Phillips