Ambitious political-thriller narratives undermined by a monotonous execution.
Cinema presents a pair of loosely connected high‑stakes espionage dramas.
The work’s first and more substantial story follows Dr. Sudarsan Chavala, a retired physician and former Green Beret who’s drawn back into covert intelligence work when his CIA-affiliated son asks for help rescuing a kidnapped associate. Framed by tributes delivered at the protagonist’s funeral, the narrative retraces Chavala’s life from medical student to Vietnam War veteran to reluctant spy. His personal history unfolds alongside an investigation into international arms trafficking—operations are coordinated from a secret CIA headquarters concealed in a public library. The book’s second entry abruptly pivots into political-thriller territory, opening with the assassination of a U.S. president and the ascension of Vice President Srinivas Robert Chavala. As he begins to face threats against his own life, Chavala launches an urgent investigation to identify the assassin and the larger political conspiracy that has motivated the threat. He does so via the assembly of an unconventional investigative team composed of disgraced detectives and former military figures. Despite their contrasting premises, both stories suffer from the same structural and stylistic problems. Each unfolds in uninterrupted blocks of exposition; the text lacks chapters and frequently includes long biographical digressions that stall any momentum. Characters explain their motivations in dialogue closer to formal briefings than actual human conversations. Both narratives rely on explanation at the expense of actual storytelling. Résumé-like character introductions, procedural descriptions, and relentless exposition, in addition to numerous grammatical errors, drain the urgency from material meant to feel suspenseful. (“Chong is upset and Chong gives Abebi a roundhouse kicks in the stomach and grabs his shirt and toss him into the floor. Both Abebi and Cal are moaning on the floor. Cal tells Chong, ‘What was that for?’”) Readers of traditional political thrillers may recognize some familiar genre elements, but the execution repeatedly leans on information dumps. The stories have moments of originality, like the whimsical librarian-spy premise, but they’re buried beneath structural confusion and sluggish pacing, rarely generating tension.
Ambitious political-thriller narratives undermined by a monotonous execution.Pub Date: June 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781964804712
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Pristine Press and Media
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fast-moving fun from start to finish.
A hijacked laser weapon threatens to ignite World War III.
The U.S. is testing the EAGL, or Enhanced Aerial Gunnery Laser, an airborne defense system that annihilates anything it hits. It’s so fast it “can shoot down a hundred ballistic missiles before they leave enemy territory,” it never runs out of ammunition, and it will “make ballistic missiles obsolete.” But a traitor named Ridley Wiles hijacks the plane that carries it, and he kills the crew. Radar contact is lost, and National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) salvage experts Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala undertake an urgent mission to find or destroy the EAGL before Russia or China lay their hands on it. Meanwhile, a smuggler named Ahab who specializes in dumping toxic waste is dying. He blames Kurt and Gushan, an officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and would like nothing better than to cause World War III before he dies. The action and excitement are damn near constant. The U.S. and China have begun joint operations on certain projects, and Kurt and Joe save Gushan’s life—barely—in the prologue. But Gushan’s superiors may later order him to hunt Americans down and kill them. He knows he owes his saviors a debt, but he is also loyal to his country and to the PLA, so he has a dilemma. The heroes are all that NUMA series readers have come to expect—smart, honorable, and resourceful under life-and-death pressure. They face attacks on the NUMA vessel Lyra, try to save a sinking ship, commandeer a cargo plane—Joe can fly it, but isn’t so sure about landing it—and hope Ahab doesn’t blow it out of the sky. As always in this series, the story is a high-stakes, brace-yourself adventure with admirable heroes who don’t shy away from the next challenge.
Fast-moving fun from start to finish.Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9798217184972
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.
A woman’s life takes a stunning turn and a wall comes tumbling down in this tense Cold War spy drama.
In Berlin in 1989, the wall is about to crumble, and Anne Simpson’s husband, Stefan Koehler, goes missing. She is a translator working with refugees from the communist bloc, and he is a piano tuner who travels around Europe with orchestras. Or so he claims. German intelligence service the BND and America’s CIA bring her in for questioning, wrongly thinking she’s protecting him. Soon she begins to learn more about Stefan, whom she had met in the Netherlands a few years ago. She realizes he’s a “gregarious musician with easy charm who collected friends like a beachcomber collects shells, keeping a few, discarding most.” Police find his wallet in a canal and his prized zither in nearby bushes but not his body. Has he been murdered? What’s going on? And why does the BND care? If Stefan is alive, he’s in deep trouble, because he’s believed to be working for the Stasi. She’s told “the dead have a way of showing up. It is only the living who hide.” And she’s quite believable when she wonders, “Can you grieve for someone who betrayed you?” Smart and observant, she notes that the reaction by one of her interrogators is “as false as his toupee. Obvious, uncalled for, and easily put on.” Lurking behind the scenes is the Matchmaker, who specializes in finding women—“American. Divorced. Unhappy,” and possibly having access to Western secrets—who will fall for one of his Romeos. Anne is the perfect fit. “The matchmaker turned love into tradecraft,” a CIA agent tells her. But espionage is an amoral business where duty trumps decency, and “deploring the morality of spies is like deploring violence in boxers.” It’s a sentiment John le Carré would have endorsed, but Anne may have the final word.
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64313-865-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
