An action-packed thriller worthy of the Ludlum legacy.
Gervais, a talented thriller writer, launches a new Ludlum series.
In Cairo, a State Department official barely survives a violent attack, getting the story off to a rip-roaring start. Then in Prague, a car bomb obliterates an Operation Treadstone assassin (no, not Jason Bourne, of whom there is passing mention), and an organization called Blackbriar dispatches operatives Helen Jouvert and Donovan Wade to the Czech Republic to investigate. They are a smart, gutsy duo who are not romantically involved, but stay tuned for future episodes. Blackbriar is a hush-hush outfit contracted by the Department of National Intelligence that, unlike the FBI, doesn't have to worry about rules and stuff. It is a Black Ops counterintelligence program designed to neutralize hostile foreign intelligence operations “by any means necessary” and is so secret that "not even POTUS" knows about it. (Um, really? Is this what America is coming to?) Blackbriar differs from Treadstone in that it is “mostly defensive, going after whoever wants to steal our government’s secrets.” Anyway, Russians persuade four forever-fighting Mexican drug cartels to put aside their differences and join them in undermining the hated United States. In a joint operation called Proyecto Verdad, the Russkies will provide the technological know-how to launch a cyberattack against the United States, and the cartels will kick in a ton of cash. As readers will expect, bloodletting abounds. Donovan Wade puts it this way: “A round to the chest and an eight-inch cut deep into one's throat is a one-way ticket to the big guy.” In his lifetime, Robert Ludlum wrote 27 thrillers. Since Ludlum’s 2001 death, Eric Van Lustbader and others collectively have written about 30 more, all set in the dangerous world of assassins and international intrigue. This is the first contribution by Gervais, and his style fits right in.
An action-packed thriller worthy of the Ludlum legacy.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-41997-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
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
BOOK REVIEW
This mystery’s promising premise bogs down in an overloaded cast.
When one woman takes on another’s identity to uncover a crime, they both become suspects in a murder.
Aubrey Price and Camille Bayliss come from different worlds, only crossing paths because of the discovery that Camille’s husband, powerful lawyer Ben Bayliss, is hiding something terrible that affects them both. As the novel opens, Aubrey is driving Camille’s Range Rover, then teetering into a bar on Camille’s high heels, with Camille’s dress and credit cards and a wig that mimics Camille’s hair, pretending to be her because Ben tracks his wife’s every move and expenditure, and Camille wants to create a smokescreen while she sneaks into his office in search of evidence of that unnamed secret. But the scheme goes awry, and the women become each other’s alibis after Camille finds Ben murdered in their home. The first part of the book builds suspense and misdirection well, with Aubrey and Ben’s straight-arrow partner, Hank Landry, serving as first-person observers in some chapters while others track Camille. She’s a wealthy and privileged woman but not a happy one, stuck under the thumbs of her husband and her tyrannical father, Randall Everett, who pretty much runs their small Louisiana town. Aubrey was orphaned as a teen when her parents died in a car crash and has proudly fended for herself ever since, coming to depend on her four roommates, who have become friends. But as the cast of characters grows, it seems as if almost everyone in town has a motive for killing Ben, and the piling up of suspects and movements among different timelines can sometimes be confusing. And it all comes to a frustrating end when, after a whole school of red herrings, the solution to Ben’s murder arrives out of far left field.
This mystery’s promising premise bogs down in an overloaded cast.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9780593834459
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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