Hidden Agenda

Book Review: Hidden Agenda

Author: Lisa Harris

Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers

Publisher: Revell

Publication Date: January 6, 2015

Rating: 4 out of 5 (Very Good)

Pros: Exciting, good balance of romance and suspense, well-written plot, a lot of tension

Cons: Too much technical wordiness, occasionally slow, too many points of view

            Michael Hunt is an undercover cop with the Atlanta police force working to bring down the infamous drug cartel leader—Antonio Valez. When a bombing accident injures Michael, he is assumed to be dead. Never assuming Michael to be a cop, Valez jumps on the chance of having an invisible man to launder his illegally gained money. Living under a new name for eight months, his family believing he is dead, and the Atlanta police force believing him to be a traitor, Michael wonders whether he should abort the mission or push forward. His mission is cut short when his real identity and career is brought to Valez’s attention. His only hope of rescue before he is executed is the beautiful Olivia Hamilton—none other than Valez’s daughter. Together with Olivia and her brother Ivan, he searches for the truth to clear his name.

            While Lisa Harris is a new author for me, I was expecting a lot from this book based on what I have heard about her as an author and what I expected from this genre. Her book series, Southern Crimes, brings exiting suspense novels featuring the Hunt family. Because each book focuses on a different person and plot, they can be easily read as stand-alone novels. Hidden Agenda is the third installment in this series, following Dangerous Passage and Fatal Exchange. I was not disappointed with Hidden Agenda, and will be buying a copy of it and the preceding novels in its series.

            Hidden Agenda reels the reader in from the beginning. No introductions to the plot and characters, the story started right away on the action. The suspense in Hidden Agenda was excellent, as a good part of the book is a chase. Twists in the plot kept the chase going without slowing it down. Everything about the plot was realistic. Both sides, the drug cartel and Atlanta police force provided a real to life story of criminals being brought to justice. Although this book had more shootings and deaths than I have seen in a suspense novel, I thought they were written tastefully without unnecessary graphic descriptions and added to the realism of the book’s plot.

            The characters in this book are strongly developed, and they all hold a deep part of the story. Michael’s family is brought into the picture halfway through the book, bringing an important element to the story. Michael’s police and detective family make up the plots of the previous books, and their input in Hidden Agenda gives the needed suspense that a police task force can bring. The addition of so many characters, including Olivia and Ivan, allowed for too many points of view that were confusing at times. Sometimes a character would appear only a couple of times in the story within their own point of view, occasionally seeming unrelated and unnecessary. A lot of dialogue keeps this story from going stale, and adds much flavor to the novel from all the character’s dialogue. When police or detectives talk, however, the language can get a little technical to understand, which made me skim occasionally. The main characters are all Christians, and they speak of their faith often, but not in an over-powering way. I did wonder, however, how the drug cartel’s leader’s children, Ivan and Olivia, were Christians. There was no background on their spiritual lives, except enough to know that they did not gain their spiritual knowledge from their parents.

            Hidden Agenda is filled with conflict. The entire plot is based upon the conflict and tension that just keeps building throughout the book. Besides the tension on Michael being on the run from the cartel and police, there is the romantic tension between him and Olivia. Because of the multiple points of view in the book, the reader can see this tension from both Michael and Olivia’s perspectives. Unfortunately because of their situations, their romance is seemingly impossible. When they realize that they are attracted to each other despite the present circumstances, both make changes in their lives to implement the other. The disappearance of Ivan, discovery of the secrets of family friend Felipe, and a bomb threat all add to the ongoing tension in the novel. Well written and suspenseful, Hidden Agenda will have readers turning pages until the end.


I received a complimentary copy of Hidden Agenda from Revell Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The opinions stated are my own.

This review also appears on The Christian Manifesto. http://thechristianmanifesto.com/fiction/hidden-agenda/