Book ~ "The Recovery Agent" (2022) Janet Evanovich

From Goodreads ~ Lost something? Gabriela Rose knows how to get it back. As a recovery agent, she’s hired by individuals and companies seeking lost treasures, stolen heirlooms, or missing assets of any kind. She’s reliable, cool under pressure, and well trained in weapons of all types. But Gabriela’s latest job isn’t for some bamboozled billionaire, it’s for her own family, whose home is going to be wiped off the map if they can’t come up with a lot of money fast.

Inspired by an old family legend, Gabriela sets off for the jungles of Peru in pursuit of the Ring of Solomon and the lost treasure of Cortez. But this particular job comes with a huge problem attached to it - Gabriela’s ex-husband, Rafer. It’s Rafer who has the map that possibly points the way to the treasure and he’s not about to let Gabriela find it without him.

Rafer is as relaxed as Gabriela is driven, and he has a lifetime’s experience getting under his ex-wife’s skin. But when they aren’t bickering about old times the two make a formidable team, and it’s going to take a team to defeat the vicious drug lord who has also been searching for the fabled ring. A drug lord who doesn’t mind leaving a large body count behind him to get it.

Gabriela is a recovery agent ... she is an expert at finding missing items and will use any means possible for a big financial payoff.  A hurricane devastated her hometown and unless she comes up with $15 million to repair it, developers are swooping in and buying up properties because the residents can't afford the repairs.  

Fanny, Gabriela's grandmother, tells her that Annie, the ghost of her ancestor (supposedly Blackbeard's mistress), told her there are maps in a chest that will lead to enough treasure to pay for the repairs.  The problem is the chest is hidden in her late great aunt Margareet's house in St. Vincent ... the same house Margareet had left to Gabriela when she passed away but Gabriela gave up in a divorce from her ex-husband, Rafer.  Rafer lives there and runs a dive shop and he and Gabriela didn't split up on good terms.

When Gabriela heads to St. Vincent and sneaks into the house, she is caught by Rafer as she is searching for the chest.  Rafer doesn't buy her story that it's just family mementos and wants half of whatever she's after (since the chest is in what's now his house) so tags along on her adventures.  They are looking for the Seal of Solomon ring but so is a religious nut who willing to kill to get the ring.

I've read many book by this author and this is the first in the Gabriela Rose series.  While I liked the writing style (it's reminiscent of her other books), treasure hunts through the jungle don't interest me nor do ghost stories.  Gabriela seemed a bit cold but I liked the quirky other characters, even Rafer.  I found it unbelievable that they were able to take off to the jungles of Peru and Costa Rica, to California and more just like that.  And Rafer is a nice lazy dude who runs a dive shop but didn't think twice about taking off with Gabriela with no reaction to the danger they were in.

I'll keep an eye out for the next one in the series ... hopefully it won't be as farfetched as this one.