In Close Quarters
by Candace Irvin

2001 RITA Finalist

Set in San Diego, California, IN CLOSE QUARTERS is the story of U.S. Navy doctor, Lieutenant Karin Scott, and Special Agent Tomás Juan Vásquez (DEA). From the moment Karin met TJ, she had him pegged for a footloose and fancy- free womanizer. Planning their best friends' wedding didn't improve her impression either. Unfortunately, when Karin stumbles across a lethal narcotics racket at the San Diego Naval Medical Center that appears to be connected to the deaths of several local teenagers, Karin has no where else to turn. With her friends on their belated honeymoon, Karin is forced to put her trust in TJ's hands. Will she be able to figure out TJ is holding her heart as well before it's too late?

Candace Irvin's Bio

As a child, Candace believed imagination was everything—and growing up as the daughter of a librarian and a sailor in locales as diverse as Germany and the Philippines, she had more than enough fodder to feed that imagination. As a teenager, she was also certain everyone had a couple extra people running around inside their heads. It was only when her father warned her about people who heard voices—and where they eventually ended up—that she realized this wasn't the case. Candace never had the heart to confess to her father that not only did those people talk to her, they led full-scale lives. Unfortunately, with the publication of her first book, FOR HIS EYES ONLY, dear ol' dad found out anyway.

As an adult, Candace learned to blend action with her imagination. After a brief stint in the US Army (long enough to survive basic training), Candace accepted a branch transfer and enrolled in the US Navy's Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC). Following her commissioning as an Ensign in the Navy and graduation from Surface Warfare Officer's school, she finally followed her father to sea. Tasked with securing the USS Samuel Gompers' damage control, she spent her days fighting fires, plugging leaks, and cleaning up toxic gases aboard the naval warship. In fact it was during one particular watch as the Gompers' Officer of the Deck, that Candace noticed a nuclear transport container and began to imagine all sorts of intriguing scenarios. It wasn't until five years later, after she'd learned to channel her excess energy and love of romance into writing that she turned that fateful night's fictitious fruit into a book. Though the Navy might not appreciate the turns her mind took along the way, she hopes you'll enjoy the results.

Although her military days are now firmly behind her, Candace continues to draw on those experiences and her overactive imagination to pen tales of danger and intrigue on the high seas and off. The rest of her time is spent happily married to her own dashing hero, a former Army Combat Engineer with dimples to-die-for. The two now reside in the South, happily raising three future heroes and one adorable heroine, who won't be allowed to date until she's forty—at least.