Headed for Trouble by Suzanne Brockmann

Wowzers…fans of Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooters series will love everything found in this group of short stories and interviews. 

Frank O’Leary stars in a short story titled “When Frank Met Rosie” which is from the Force of Nature promo book.  This one was one of my favorites.  There were so many snippets and short stories in this compliation that I don’t remember them all until I see the title, but this one sticks out for me.  Frank and Rosie are both very likeable.  We spend only a few hours with them, but it was awesome.  Frank and Rosie meet on a rainy night in New Orleans.  There is a touch of the fantastical in this one, which isn’t necessarily present in the author’s other stuff.

I started out really liking “Home is Where the Heart Is, Part I and II), but it quickly became boring!  I found Arlene Schroeder to be annoying, but I did like her daughter, Maggie, her brother Will, and her lovey, Jack Lloyd.  Arlene is home on leave and Maggie wants to keep her mother home longer than a month and comes up with a bit of a ridiculous plan and finagles Jack into it.  So Jack propositions Arlene, but not the usual proposition.  They also brought in Robin and Jules for a few scenes which was fine and dandy, but then there were a couple superfluous scenes where we are in Robin or Jules head away from the other characters and the scene had nothing to do with this story. 

My next favorite was featuring Sam Starrett in “A SEAL and three babies”.  This is an all star short story with Sam and Alyssa and their son, Ash, Jules & Robin, and Max, Gina and their two children.  Max, Alyssa and Jules are going on a mission in Afghanistan.  Sam, Robin, Gina and the kids are to wait for them at a nice resort.  Both situations have a few major snafus.  I loved how Sam handled his end of the situation. 

I didn’t enjoy the interviews so much.  I can appreciate the creativity that went behind the thought, but it is just a little weird for me.   There is also just a few too many religious curse words.  I would prefer almost any other curse word besides the big “GD”.  Yuke!  Crass and cheap. 

Favorite quote: Sam from “A SEAL and three babies” when he is analyzing his group as only a SEAL would:

“It was a team that consisted of an eight-month-old, a one-year-old, a three-year-old, and two twentysomethings who were hopelessly in love with their partners—partners who’d recently left for a war zone.  And that meant that Sam’s team’s major skill sets were eating, pooping, crying, and/or trying not to cry or otherwise appear worried so as not to frighten the super-short team members.”