Review of "Off The Grid: A Monkeewrench Thriller" by P.J. Tracy

In this 6th book in the 'Monkeewrench' series, Grace MacBride and her colleagues are in a race against time to stop terrorist attacks. The book can be read as a standalone though familiarity with the characters is a plus.

*****

Grace MacBride is on a relaxing sailing trip with her friend, retired FBI agent John Smith, when a couple of Saudi nationals try to kill John.

Grace handily dispatches the killers and John goes underground temporarily.

Turns out John has been tracking terrorist activities and may have information about their plans to attack American cities.

Thus John and his friends, especially Grace and her colleagues at the software company Monkeewrench, become targets for the terrorists.

So Grace, her Monkeewrench cohorts - voluptuous fashionista Annie Belinsky; big guy Harley Davidson; and beanpole Roadrunner - pick up John and make a run for it. They take back roads, drive dangerously, and so on to avoid being followed by the terrorist assassins.

Meanwhile, Somali gangs and Native American thugs have teamed up to kidnap young girls for the sex trade and detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are on the job.

Before long the hunt for terrorists and the pursuit of gang members and thugs dovetail because the sex trade is being used to fund terrorist activities.

While all this is going on terrorists around the country are being killed in their homes - a few at a time. Seems someone has been distributing information about where they live.

There's a race against time as 'the good guys' try to stop the planned terrorist attacks before becoming victims themselves. Before the end there are some exciting battles that involve guns, knives, and bows and arrows.

There's also some humor in the story: Gino's fear of flying provides a few laughs as does the banter between the secondary characters Claude and the Chief.

For me the book was just so-so. Grace wasn't in top form in her strategy to run from the terrorists and the book's ending was a bit of a let down. Still, fans of the series will enjoy visiting with favorite characters in the series and seeing how Grace's personal relationship with Leo Magozzi is affected by everything that's going on.

Rating: 3 stars