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Play Dirty

Sandra Brown

First published 2007 · 720 pages

A steamy, high-stakes thrill ride where scandalous wealth collides with desperate bids for redemption.

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What it feels like

Reading this book feels like stepping into the sweltering, high-stakes heat of a Texas summer, where everyone has a secret and no one is entirely clean. It delivers a propulsive, twist-laden experience that balances gritty suspense with undeniable romantic tension. The atmosphere is thick with scandal, contrasting the polished, untouchable world of the ultra-wealthy with the desperate, sweat-soaked reality of a man who has lost everything. The narrative moves at a breakneck speed, pulling the reader through a maze of moral ambiguity, dangerous obsessions, and forbidden desires. It is a perfect match for readers who devour steamy, cinematic thrillers featuring cynical, morally gray heroes who are pushed to their absolute limits in the pursuit of a second chance.

Mood
  • tense
  • sultry
  • dangerous
  • scandalous
Tone
  • gritty
  • dramatic
  • cynical
  • suspenseful
Pace
propulsive
Themes
corrupting power of wealth · forbidden desire · search for redemption · dangerous obsessions · morally gray choices
The writing
Punchy and cinematic, prioritizing sharp dialogue and relentless pacing over flowery descriptions.
The arc
Begins in cynical desperation and builds through escalating danger toward a hard-won, high-stakes redemption.
Who it's for
Readers who crave steamy romantic suspense featuring disgraced, morally gray heroes and the scandalous secrets of the ultra-wealthy.
Content notes
  • murder
  • violence
  • sexual content
  • imprisonment

About the book

author Sandra Brown is backwith a gripping story of obsession and its deadly consequences.

After five long years in federal prison, Griff Burkett is a free man. But the disgraced Cowboys quarterback can never return to life as he knew it before he was caught cheating. In a place where football is practically a religion, Griff committed a cardinal sin, and no one is forgiving.

Foster Speakman, owner and CEO of SunSouth Airlines, and his wife, Laura, are a golden couple. Successful and wealthy, they lived a charmed life before fate cruelly intervened and denied them the one thing they wanted most -- a child. It's said that money can't buy everything. But it can buy a disgraced football player fresh out of prison and out of prospects.

The job Griff agrees to do for the Speakmans demands secrecy. But he soon finds himself once again in the spotlight of suspicion. An unsolved murder comes back to haunt him in the form of his nemesis, Stanley Rodarte, who has made Griff's destruction his life's mission. While safeguarding his new enterprise, Griff must also protect those around him, especially Laura Speakman, from Rodarte's ruthlessness. Griff stands to gain the highest payoff he could ever imagine, but cashing in on it will require him to forfeit his only chance for redemption...and love.

Griff is now playing a high-stakes game, and at the final whistle, one player will be dead.

Play Dirty is Sandra Brown's wildest ride yet, with hairpin turns of plot all along the way. The clock is ticking down on a fallen football star, who lost everything because of the way he played the game. Now his future -- his life -- hinges on one last play.

Description from Open Library.

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