An action-packed topical read that is sometimes overly complicated.
Fiction borrows heavily from fact in this stark action novel built around Mexico’s drug war as it spills into the U.S.
Grant Meredith is the stoic, stubborn hero of his own privatized effort to take down a cartel kingpin. Trouble is, the kingpin—who has a grudge against Meredith to begin with—is the father of the president of Mexico, a stature that protects him with a complicated sociopolitical reality that includes the police, judiciary and armed forces. Meredith has an arsenal of his own, however, including his multinational security company, BlackRock. High-caliber havoc ensues. The subtitle of the book sums it up: Murder or Self Defense on the Mexican Border. Or both murder and self-defense, as bullets fly north and south in a sprawling story that has henchmen beheaded, padrones shot in the face and sharpshooters picked off by other sharpshooters. The gist of the tale is painfully realistic, ripped quite literally from the headlines (the author acknowledges this in an appendix of news stories). Merriman—a military veteran who lives in Arizona and Colorado—has done his homework. For example, one passage describes in concise fashion the vast illicit-drug economy that supports people from all walks of life: “Farmers, importers, purchasing agents, negotiators, shippers, financial managers, money launderers, accountants, lawyers, intelligence agents, communications specialists, car thieves, enforcers, spotters, distribution agents, smugglers and street sellers.” That’s what Meredith is up against. While the factual basis of the narrative is compelling, the central drama between Meredith and his nemesis is lost sometimes in an excessive character count and a tangled plot. There’s also the fact that Meredith is essentially a soldier of fortune, a quality that will hinder his likeability for some readers—BlackRock being so reminiscent of Blackwater USA, the military contractor that became so controversial in the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The story has a neat closing twist, however, and Meredith’s alliance with a beautiful assassin is an inspired idea.
An action-packed topical read that is sometimes overly complicated.Pub Date: June 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-1470002244
Page Count: 342
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.
Second of the Walter Nash thrillers—following Nash Falls (2025)—in which the remade hero seeks vengeance.
Due to urgent circumstances, Nash has bulked himself up to become the “muscled and tatted fighting machine” now known as Dillon Hope. His antagonist is Victoria Steers, a global drug dealer who wants him dead. Not realizing his new identity, she enlists Hope to free her mother, Masuyo, from a prison in Myanmar. As an incentive, she shoots one of her associates and threatens to frame Hope for the murder unless he complies. She also wants him to find Nash. He in turn wants to kill Victoria to avenge the death of his innocent daughter, Maggie. “If I go down,” he muses, “I’m taking others with me. Starting with Victoria Steers.” He learns that Victoria had killed all her siblings to eliminate business competition. But as heartless as Victoria is, her mother, Masuyo, is even worse. In league with the Chinese government in a perverse plan to kill as many Americans as possible through fentanyl overdose, she shows contempt for Victoria for her perceived weaknesses. Readers won’t find many happy family relationships here: mother-daughter, father-son, husband-wife—all fraught. Hope’s employer, who accompanies him to Myanmar, is a billionaire chief executive with a dodgy past (i.e., probably killed his father). And there’s a mega-billionaire with an astronomical IQ and ditch-deep morals who, putting it mildly, does not have America’s best interests at heart. As a teenager, he’d defeated two world chess champions; as an adult, he regards his dealings with the world in terms of master chess moves. Only one character seems truly decent and credible—Hiroko, Victoria’s former nanny and lifelong companion, who provides Hope with valuable insights into the Steers’ background, which is partly Chinese. Searing grudges, simple evil, and not-so-simple misunderstandings carry the cast through this complex, action-packed plot. This sequel ties out the loose ends dangling in Nash Falls, which would be helpful to read first. To get to the requisite ending, though, Baldacci takes pains to surprise the reader. It works but often feels forced.
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781538758021
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
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
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