Play Nice

Known for cozier romantic suspense, Halliday (Hollywood Confessions) shifts gears with this exciting first in a thriller series replete with hit men, high-speed chases, and international crime. Trained as an assassin for the KOS (the former Yugoslavian intelligence agency) in Kosovo as a very young girl, Anya Danielovich has since moved to San Francisco and remade herself into Anna Smith, though she’s always looking over her shoulder. Bullets start to fly when hired gun Nick Dade trains his rifle on her, but someone else starts shooting seconds earlier. From then on, Anna works with Nick to unmask the men and the reasons behind the multiple contracts on her life while she wonders if she has any reason to trust Nick. Anna’s dog, Lenny, provides some relief from the mayhem. A few plot holes and a highly far-fetched reason behind one of the contracts do nothing to spoil the fun. Agent: Holly Root, the Waxman Agency. (Mar.)