Strong, skillful female warriors headline this rousing sequel.
A computer geek teams up with a black ops group to recover superconductive material in this second installment of a thriller series.
After spotting an intruder in her San Francisco loft, Maddy Marshall first protects 10-year-old AJ, the boy she hopes to adopt. Unfortunately, the culprit absconds with the ancient star chart she had been keeping safe. This chart may be the key to recovering a superconductive meteorite, which would fuel a quantum computer. As the thief may have been Russian, it’s a national security risk since the Russians would likely use such a computer for an American invasion. Alfred Bowman, director of VanOps, assigns Maddy’s boyfriend, Bear Thorenson, to find the meteorite as well as investigate the possibly related murder of an Indian ambassador. Joining Bear are VanOps members Jarmilla “Jags” Agiashvili and Maddy’s twin, Will Argones. Maddy becomes part of the team, too. Though only a civilian, she has an aikido black belt and belongs to the Order of the Invisible Flame, an ancient sect of royal spies that her family founded. This mission necessitates enlisting the help of archeoastronomer Anu Kumar; deciphering hieroglyphics on an important relic that Maddy possesses; and dodging tenacious assassins. Maddy and Jags are delightfully capable and convincingly vulnerable characters. But while the two women’s combat scenes are exhilarating, the story ultimately turns into a series of seemingly endless assaults or assassination attempts the team must face. Nevertheless, the final act is decidedly more intense while the brisk narrative traverses the globe to such places as Turkey, Egypt, and Africa. Centrae provides Maddy with numerous dilemmas, as she debates an offer to officially join VanOps (she’s concerned it would put AJ in persistent danger) and deals with Bear’s envy over her ex-fiance, Vincent, who, to some extent, is still in her life.
Strong, skillful female warriors headline this rousing sequel. (author’s notes, acknowledgements, author bio)Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73496-625-1
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Thunder Creek Press
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Intrepid, compassionate sleuths unravel a tangle of cold-blooded crimes.
Brutal acts and baffling mysteries threaten the peace of an idyllic mountain community.
Colorado deputy sheriff Mattie Wray and her sister, Julia, have ventured south to the Mexican village of Pueblo del Sol to visit their mother, Ramona. Given Mattie’s pending wedding to veterinarian Cole Walker, this should be a celebratory occasion, but it turns tense when Ramona’s friends greet her suspiciously and explain that their mother is missing along with her husband, Juan Martinez. Could the unsolved murder of Mattie’s felonious father decades ago be connected to Ramona’s disappearance? When Mattie gets back on the job, a missing person report sends her, with K-9 sidekick Robo and her friend Stella LoSasso, a detective in the local sheriff’s office, into the Colorado pine forest, where they make a horrifying discovery: Juan’s corpse, roped to a tree. Someone has apparently followed Mattie north from Mexico with vengeance on their mind. On the heels of this bizarre crime, Cole discovers another: the apparent poisoning of several horses. The eighth entry in Mizushima’s series is distinctive as ever in its authentic Western flavor and its affection for animals. Robo is an integral part of an investigative team, ferreting out valuable evidence, and the poignant equine mystery is a major plot thread. After Mattie receives a creepy letter from someone identifying themselves as “a friend of your father’s” that confirms a connection to Ramona’s disappearance, more twists and dangers await. Though Mizushima front-loads her tale with multiple backstories, an abundance of supporting characters, and a handful of mysteries, her lucid prose and caring cast should again captivate readers, new and old, and keep them engaged in the complex mystery.
Intrepid, compassionate sleuths unravel a tangle of cold-blooded crimes.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781639102440
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crooked Lane
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
By turns serious and funny, but never seriously funny.
Britain and the U.S. try to protect their spies, and the Special Relationship feels the strain.
The CIA sends Artemis Aphrodite Procter to become their chief of station in London and help “rebalance things with the Brits.” She accepts the assignment reluctantly, as she’s dismissive of the British in general and London in particular. Told that the city is lovely, she replies that’s the problem. The Brits are pickpockets, she claims, who often do good work but will usually rob Americans blind. Anyway, she prefers to run ops and “likes to get her hands dirty out in the field” and is “a lunatic…[w]ith a stellar reputation.” The first challenge is that the allies have lost four Chinese assets, and now China’s Ministry of State Security Officer Gao Shiyan is in town as part of a trade delegation. Against the Brits’ explicit request not to do so, Procter surprises Gao on a London street and cold pitches him to betray his country. The result is a scene that highlights Procter’s lunacy but not her competence. Read about a “suddenly bald woman with an armpit sprouting breasts” following a collision with an e-bike while she’s wearing a disguise and you might reasonably expect goofiness throughout. Mostly, though, it’s a standard thriller with its share of murders and one spectacular death. Mimir, an intelligence gathering firm, sells intel to various rivals, and the good guys chase a bad guy to nigh-on the Earth’s end—and the novel’s. But at its core, the story is about an old married couple that hasn’t suffered a serious tiff since 1812, and the occasional tensions work themselves out. Procter, who’s had stints in Moscow (Moscow X, 2023) and Afghanistan, maintains a mental “violence jar” to which she contributes every time she resists beating the crap out of an annoying colleague. Even her back displays her dedication when she’s not covered up. Ten tattooed stars stretch from scapula to scapula, each representing a CIA comrade fallen since her days in Afghanistan.
By turns serious and funny, but never seriously funny.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9781324123217
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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