Speaking of Long-Awaited...Nadia Stafford Trilogy from Kelley Armstrong

EXIT STRATEGY (Nadia Stafford #1)
Kelley Armstrong
Bantam Books
2007

Exit Strategy opens with a "hit" in a NY City Subway Station on a mafia thug. The difference here is that the assassin is a woman, a disgraced Ontario cop and now hunting lodge owner. Nadia was kicked off the force for taking justice in her own hands. A rapist and pedophile had just been released by a jury and something snapped in Nadia. What most people don't know is that Nadia and her cousin Amy were kidnapped by a pedophile when in their early teens. Nadia survived; Amy did not and the killer got away with it. Now Nadia takes on a contract or two a year from a small NY "family", usually another mafia thug. The work helps her keep the lodge afloat as well as satisfy the need to dispense her own brand of justice. But when it becomes clear that another hit man has gone rogue and become a serial killer Nadia must team up with her mentor, Jack, and other hit men to find him. Rogue hit men are bad for business. What follows is an exciting ride as the group looks for the rogue and a fascinating look at the culture of professional assassins.

MADE TO BE BROKEN (Nadia Stafford #2)
Kelley Armstrong
Bantam Books
2009

Nadia is at home at the lodge when one of her employees along with her baby goes missing. Sammi is a not too bright and usually hostile, but beautiful, teenager who works for Nadia. Brought up by a drunken and abusive mother, Sammi is one of those kids that the town expects nothing of, but she is a devoted mother, determined to get away and bring up her child with love. When the two go missing no one seems interested except Nadia. Jack is recovering from a broken leg at the lodge and the two investigate the disappearances, leading them into a world of murder and baby trafficking with a hit man connection. 

The Nadia Stafford books were not all that well received when they first came out. Armstrong was in the midst of her very successful "Women of the Otherworld" series and these are very, very different. It's hard to make a hit woman sympathetic but Armstrong succeeds brilliantly. Jack and the other recurring characters are utterly believable. There is the retired hit woman, Evelyn, and Quinn, a vigilante hit man who is still a federal cop. Wild Justice is coming from Sphere on November 26 and should wrap up the series. I am really looking forward to seeing how Armstrong wraps up the story and whether Nadia and Jack overcome their mutual reticence. 

RATING- 4 Stars