Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap

First: spoiler alert. I will try to avoid giving away details, but, really, if you are a fan of Karen Rose and Kay Hooper, you should know I'm going to talk about them in a second. And their books. Specifically, their most recent books. So if you're on book one of the Vartanian books by Rose, or haven't started the "Blood" titles from Hooper, consider yourself warned.

I admit it, I'm a sucker for the bad boys. And girls.

Of course, I'm not referring to the typical misbehaving, preheroic hero (I really prefer the law and order types), but the villain of the piece. A well-crafted villain (regardless of sex) really makes the story.

Now, there are a lot of books with really weak villains, and sometimes those books are "good" books overall, but really, I want to be wondering one of three things through the entire story: who is this person, are they going to get him (or her) in time, and/or are they going to catch him (or her) EVER!!

Two of my favorite writers -- Karen Rose and Kay Hooper -- recently wrote some stories involving that last "what if." Karen Rose just finished a trio where not only do some of the good guys carry over, but so does the question of who started it all. The most recent two books from Kay Hooper make it obvious at the end (of each) that the villains are mere pawns.

As a rule, this would make me nuts. Alex Kava did it several years ago and I went crazy between books, waiting to see what happened next. Good for her, ulcer-inducing for me!

Back to Hooper and Rose. In "Nothing to Fear," you know who the villain is from page one (well, chapter one, at least). It's the cat and mouse (the villain being the cat in this case) that drags you into the story and doesn't let you go.

Both authors put so much into their villains that reading their books (note: with Hooper, I'm referring only to her Bishop books) a) keeps me up all night and b) not just when I'm reading them. Very scary--and reliably so, which is the best part.

It's all about the bad boys.