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by Catherine Mann
RT Rating: 
Category: ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Publisher: BERKLEY SENSATION
Published: April 2009
Type: Romantic Suspense
» Book Review |
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Honor and Duty
CATHERINE MANN'S MILITARY DEFENDERS
What is it about
military men and women that make them such compelling fictional protagonists? "I think it's the honor that comes with someone that wears the uniform; it's very appealing, I guess. They've been through the world's top security clearance ...Êhave an innate sense of honor and are giving of themselves to a higher calling. They are putting service over self. That is a hugely honorable and appealing and selfless characteristic."
So says romance author Catherine Mann, and she should know. Not only does she write about the military, her husband was recently promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. "He's my hero," says the author. That may explain why her books -- she's written more than 30, many for Harlequin and Silhouette -- resonate with readers.
It also explains her newest writing venture -- the romantic
suspense Dark Ops trilogy, which launches with this month's Defender (Berkley Sensation). The series is about members of an Air Force test squadron who have their hands on the latest technological advances -- and, of course, trouble. In book one, USO performer Chloe Nelson and flyboy/test pilot Jimmy Gage are thrown together when an airman is believed abducted in Turkey. (Book two, Hotshot, will be released next month; the trilogy ender, Renegade, is slated for a Jan. 2010 release.)
Mann also has a Silhouette Desire, Propositioned Into a Foreign Affair, out in May. And she's currently co-writing a nonfiction parenting book with fellow military mom Anita Tedaldi. Special-Ops Moms, which will be released in 2010 by Adams Media, "is a quirky, funny, Erma Bombeck approach geared to all parents. You don't have to be a military parent to get something out of it," says Mann, who has four biological children and a now-adult son whom the family took in when he was a teen.
One of the pleasures of writing about military heroes and giving readers a glimpse into the realities of military life has been the reaction of readers. "I get so much support for the troops, which I appreciate because my husband is one of those troops," Mann says. In one particular letter, a reader wrote that "she felt safer knowing these kinds of people are protecting the country.
"It came the day my husband was being deployed to Saudi Arabia, and he folded it up and took it with him."
-- Faygie Levy |
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