A believable account of elite operators working outside traditional government parameters to track international villains.
An off-the-books anti-terrorist task force travels to Israel to pursue an international arms dealer and help old friends in the process.
With his experience as an officer in the U.S. Army's Special Forces, Taylor (Ring of Fire, 2016, etc.) brings firsthand military knowledge to the Nephilim “Pike” Logan series. While walking through the Venetian casino in Las Vegas, Logan and fellow Taskforce member Knuckles pick their way through a throng of want-to-be commandos attending the largest gun show on Earth until their boss, Kurt Hale, calls them to go operational. Even by the unconventional standards of the Taskforce, this mission is noticeably different. Without an official mandate, Hale has made a gut decision to have his team track a former U.S. Marine–turned–arms dealer. Logan and his girlfriend/business partner/fellow Taskforce member, Jennifer, follow their target to Israel, where they attempt to reconnect with old friends Aaron and Shoshana, both of whom are former Mossad operatives. However, a jubilant reunion is delayed because Aaron was captured while in the midst of investigating an international plot which could result in damaging the reputation of the highly respected Israeli diamond exchange and causing a military coup in a small African country. Aaron’s captors didn't realize that Shoshana would do anything to get him back and they had no idea that she may be one of the world’s most effective assassins. Throw into the mix the return of Johan van Rensburg, a former member of the legendary South African Reconnaissance Commandos–turned–soldier of fortune, and you have the ideal stage for Logan and Shoshana, both extremely component with their deadly skill sets, to showcase a trail of destruction.
A believable account of elite operators working outside traditional government parameters to track international villains.Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-101-98481-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
Dionne tries to strike a balance between psychological thriller and coming-of-age tale, but the end result feels more like...
The daughter of an escaped convict tracks her father through the wilderness while reflecting upon her childhood as his prisoner.
When Helena Pelletier learns that notorious kidnapper, rapist, and murderer Jacob Holbrook (aka The Marsh King) is no longer in police custody, she panics; Jacob is Helena’s dad, and 13 years ago she put him behind bars. Born and raised in a swamp in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Helena didn’t know that she and her mother were captives until they were rescued. Her new family knows nothing about her past, so when the cops show up at her house looking for leads, her husband, Stephen, is stunned. He packs the kids into the car and decamps to his parents’ place in Green Bay, but Helena stays put, certain the authorities can’t catch Jacob without her help. Helena’s race to find The Marsh King is pulse-pounding stuff, but the bulk of the story comprises a string of loosely connected flashbacks to Helena’s youth. Her conflicted feelings about Jacob ring true, but they also undercut tension, throttle pace, and de-fang the book’s boogeyman. Dionne’s (The Killing:Uncommon Denominator, 2014, etc.) efforts to tie her plot to the Hans Christian Andersen fable of the same name feel contrived and further disrupt the narrative drive.
Dionne tries to strike a balance between psychological thriller and coming-of-age tale, but the end result feels more like an unsettling walk down Memory Lane.Pub Date: June 13, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7352-1300-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Fast-moving, violent, and entertaining, this is genuine good-guy–versus–bad-guy stuff.
A storied marksman meets his equal in the 11th installment of Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger series (G-Man, 2017, etc.).
Seventy-two-year-old retired sniper Bob Lee Swagger watches the prairie from his rocking chair in Idaho, neither expecting nor wanting to see anyone. But Janet McDowell shows up, saying that her son was shot by a sniper in Baghdad and that she had gone to extraordinary, fruitless trouble trying to exact vengeance on Juba the Sniper, who has killed hundreds of Americans. Swagger agrees to hunt the man down—hey, it’ll be more interesting than hanging out at Cracker Barrel. Meanwhile, Juba dreams of killing Marines—“The world was a kill box. His finger spoke for God.” Soon Swagger is in Tel Aviv, chatting with the Mossad. They want Juba, too, but they want him alive “to have a series of chats with him.” Swagger would like to feed Juba’s face to the pigs, but “Alas,” he’s told, “we’re a little Jewish country. No pigs.” Scenes with Juba show off his bloodthirsty side—wait, that’s his only side, for which he routinely gives thanks. This chap is a fascinating one-dimensional villain, crediting his bloodlust to God. Then U.S. intelligence learns that Juba is coming to America to kill a high-value target from a long-distance shot, so Swagger returns home. There’s more than enough detail in this story about hollow point shells, muzzle velocities, and precision kills from over a mile away to make Second Amendment worshipers quiver jellolike with excitement. As the title suggests, Swagger and Juba are inevitably in for a showdown, not a little chat, and it’s going to be spectacular. The author is a Pulitzer Prize–winning film critic who knows how to tell a crackling good story.
Fast-moving, violent, and entertaining, this is genuine good-guy–versus–bad-guy stuff.Pub Date: July 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-399-57457-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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