THE FILE

A young woman leads a band of merciless assassins on a worldwide chase in Born’s action thriller.

The author sets the scene for his debut novel in a seedy hotel room as Sara West, a young graduate student, stitches up her injuries; she’s hiding out from several men out to kill her. Not long before, while on a scientific expedition led by her father in Central Africa, she discovered a downed military plane deep in the jungle containing four bodies dressed in German uniforms and a file cabinet containing haunting Nazi documents. They tell of a trove of illegally obtained assets that may still be hidden somewhere in Europe. The files catapult Sara into a world of corruption, conspiracy, and murder when Russian and American intelligence agencies get wind of the information she discovered. The Russians, driven by greed, and the Americans, fearing the exposure of evidence connecting the U.S. government to the Nazis, launch ruthless missions to obtain the documents. After a bloodthirsty massacre of everyone on the expedition but Sara, she escapes into the unforgiving jungle. Accompanied by Jeb Fisher, a former CIA agent, she leads her pursuers across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Along the way, Born takes his readers on a thrilling journey that he punctuates with car chases, shootouts, knife fights, and narrow escapes. He tells his story through the third-person perspectives of several well-developed characters who fall into types that avid readers of thrillers will find pleasingly familiar, such as Jeb, an alluring former spy with mysterious intentions. The prose is detailed yet succinct, moving steadily through a well-paced plot, and the constant action offers readers little downtime: “Somehow, they hadn’t found her. Somehow, she had survived the night. She fought back a wave of terror as she remembered where she was.” Overall, Sara West’s daring trek is certain to capture and keep readers’ attention.

A well-paced, action-packed thriller with appealing characters.