A fast-paced espionage tale brimming with action and smartly constructed.
In this cloak-and-dagger novel, a military catastrophe is explored from the multiple perspectives of characters whose professional lives intersect.
A team of American special forces soldiers raids a weapons cache held in Nigeria by Boko Haram, the militant Islamic group, and the operation goes terribly wrong. A massive explosion kills 14 American soldiers, the result of a targeted strike by a weaponized drone produced by the Chinese. Scott panoramically portrays the fallout of that debacle from the varying viewpoints of several characters—all in some way participants in the shadowy world of covert military operations. Isaac Northe is a former Marine and the best friend of Jimmy Taylor, one of the soldiers presumed dead in the explosion. After Northe hears the news, he muses: “I’d always been under the notion that Jimmy was invincible, even immortal.” While working as a security consultant for Omniburton, a massive defense contractor, Northe discovers that the outfit was likely in control of the drone that delivered the carnage. His employer, Sarah Powers, is a former CIA spook code-named Athena. She hails from Project Olympus, the same elite program that trained Naomi Kaufman, the CIA agent who was in Nigeria when the mission went south, and Marissa Diaz, an assassin currently on a lethal assignment for her client, a Swiss bank. The author deftly keeps the nuanced intricacy of the plot impressively lucid, and the shifts in perspective paint an intelligent perch from which to assess the wages of nihilistic corruption. Furthermore, Scott furnishes a striking peek into the shadowy corridors of espionage, one paradoxically characterized by both the bonds of soldierly loyalty and moral indifference. The plot can feel a touch familiar—the principal weaknesses of the novel are a general lack of originality and a preponderance of the genre’s clichés. And while the author’s writing style is unimpeachably clear, it is otherwise plain. Nevertheless, for readers in search of a thoughtfully composed spy thriller, this book is an attractive option.
A fast-paced espionage tale brimming with action and smartly constructed.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 979-8986323206
Page Count: 246
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.
The 25th novel featuring Silva’s legendary protagonist.
During his intersecting careers as art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon has tangled with Russian gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists. He has become well-acquainted with operatives in multiple security agencies and befriended a paid assassin. He has busted art thieves and created passable forgeries by Renaissance masters and abstract Modernists. This latest installment centers around his relationship with the pope and a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has gone missing from the Vatican. Silva’s novels tend to fall into two categories: books that reflect the politics of the day and books that don’t. His latest is one of the latter, which could be a treat for readers looking for escape, but it falls flat for a variety of reasons. Luxury has always been part of Gabriel Allon’s universe. It used to be an aspect of tradecraft, though. Allon would be wearing a very expensive suit and driving a very expensive car because he was posing as a client at a Swiss bank. Here, his wife is hosting a catered lunch for 150 of their daughter’s classmates in their apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. What once felt like a scintillating peek into the world of the obscenely wealthy now just feels…kind of obscene. Similarly, Allon goes chasing after a missing painting as a civilian—he retired from Mossad in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022)—the same way another man his age might buy a speedboat or get hair plugs. As the story progresses, the stakes are raised, but it’s hard to forget that Allon is now a middle-aged man pursuing a dangerous hobby, rather than a spymaster leading his intrepid team to prevent a disaster that will disrupt the global order.
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384217
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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