Further captivating adventures of a resilient spy continuously dodging enemy fire.
A government operative intercepts nuclear arms heisters in Mays’ international spy thriller.
In this electrifying sequel to Contractor (2021), the author continues the daring adventures of American CIA contractor Andrew Gold, divorced father of two and outspoken leader of the counterterrorist outfit ATG. Set after the Soviet Union’s dissolution, the story concerns nuclear weapon inventory remaining unchecked in Russian manufacturing warehouses, where threats of theft loom daily. Nefarious collective Operation Alpha Count has rallied their members to smuggle this ordnance out of Russia to sell to radical guerilla groups with destructive intentions. Their machinations, however covert, catch the attention of Gold’s ATG team. They are dispatched to intercept and shut down Alpha after the group illicitly obtains crates of plutonium warhead spheres from a bankrupt facility in Russia’s closed city of Ozersk. Gold immediately resumes his womanizing ways with Natasha, a flight attendant with whom he has a dalliance. He again joins forces with colleagues, including the Russian black market expert Dima and the beautiful, CIA–trained Sofia, with whom Gold has a complicated “emotional and romantic” reunion. The discovery of a dismembered teammate puts the group on high alert and catapults the espionage narrative into overdrive (“The horror of dying in a place like Odessa and disappearing without a clue began to sink in. For the time being, though, the twelve-inch width of the shelter’s heavy-duty frame was taking all the rounds that would have blown his head off”). Once it’s clear who’s on which side, there’s a satisfying conclusion to this twisty thriller that's filled with secret agendas and merciless bloodshed. The open ending signals more exploits to come. Despite a brisk summary of Gold’s previous spy adventures in Warsaw and Russia, readers new to the series may want to start with Mays’ first Contractor installment to get all the dirty details on its audacious hero.
Further captivating adventures of a resilient spy continuously dodging enemy fire.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2022
ISBN: 9781800746749
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Olympia Publishers
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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