At first it just seemed like a normal day's work for Sydney – retrieve some monitoring equipment from the roof of an office building and get out of there. But when she is interrupted in the middle of the operation by the arrival of a group of armed men she is forced to make an unplanned escape via the interior of the offices.

In theory, being a Saturday, the offices should have been deserted but no one had considered the presence of a cleaning crew. When one of the workers is hit by a stray bullet Sydney is uncharacteristically upset and finds it difficult to concentrate on her usual tasks.

Despite being slightly off form Sydney is sent to Peru, along with her half sister Nadia, to investigate an engineer/inventor whose microelectronic skills had been detected in a number of monitoring devices and weapons recently discovered. Unfortunately something goes wrong and Nadia is taken prisoner.

It is down to Sydney and the rest of the team to establish where Nadia has been taken and rescue her while trying to eliminate a new and terrifying weapon.

When we first received the Alias books for review I was a little apprehensive. Although I did watch the majority of the first season I somehow missed most of the following episodes and therefore wondered if I would be able to do the book justice by reading it with no real existing knowledge of the curretn state of this world or the characters.

I am delighted to say that there is no prior knowledge required to thoroughly enjoy this book. The author includes just enough history about the characters and situations to make the story totally stand-alone. What was really impressive was the way that Askegren includes the history within the storyline without resorting to tedious paragraphs of background information. This technique makes the book accessible to both Alias-virgins and long-time fans alike.

I have to admit that having read one of the Alias books I am now totally hooked and I am eagerly awaiting the next book to review. Now, I wonder if I can get copies of the TV series...

Exciting and energetic. Sydney is no weak and feeble woman waiting to be rescued by a macho man yet she still manages to keep a compassionate side to her nature. A real 21st Century woman!

Synopsis
What begins as a routine assignment -- infiltrate a public building and retrieve monitoring equipment set up by APO -- goes horribly wrong. With the mission suddenly compromised, the true question becomes, Who's monitoring whom and why? Resourceful Sydney manages to complete the objective, but a split-second miscalculation during her escape endangers a civilian caught in the cross-fire.

When haunting details of the victim emerge and the lead suspect is murdered, Sydney's carefully compartmentalized life threatens to unravel. Has she always made the right choices, knowing the inherent danger posed to those around her? Vaughn and Jack are understandably concerned. For a field agent, even the tiniest loss of focus can prove deadly....