An engaging tale highlighting the tensions of diplomatic immunity and introducing a surprisingly endearing hero.
In this thriller, a British soldier–turned-operative finds his world upended when his nephew is killed by a CIA agent’s wife, who flees to escape the consequences.
This series opener begins with two crosscutting events: British secret agent Toby Miller takes out a bomb maker in an unnamed country, and Madyson Lutz, distracted and driving on the wrong side of the road, runs over a teen cyclist. The accident happens near the British base where Madyson’s CIA agent husband has been working. The fates of these characters soon intertwine since the cyclist, who dies from his injuries, is Toby’s nephew. Madyson’s husband hustles his wife back to the United States, angry that she has messed up his career but claiming diplomatic immunity for the incident. Toby is told the news by his bosses, ordered to take a break at his former British army barracks, and watched regarding his mental state and potential for vigilantism (“Miller’s a bloody potent weapon, Her Majesty’s Armed Forces saw to that, and now we’ve given him more training, more responsibility, more deadly skills. He’s capable of a lot”). Lucy Bell, the policewoman who arrived at the accident scene, is part of the team sent to interview Madyson, although officials imply that extradition is unlikely. Once this proves to be the case, Toby, whose sister and brother-in-law are suffering greatly from grief, travels to the U.S. to kill Madyson. But the situation turns out to be not at all what Toby expects. Green’s thriller has an intriguing inciting incident, prompting its core characters to create and rally around a “4DC,” or For Diplomatic Change, movement. The book’s midsection gets bogged down a bit with conversations among various officials who are ultimately minor characters. But overall, the story is a well-paced page-turner driving readers to its dramatic meeting between Toby and Madyson. Toby is also an appealing series protagonist, with his tough-guy persona leavened by both humorous and emotional interactions with family and others.
An engaging tale highlighting the tensions of diplomatic immunity and introducing a surprisingly endearing hero.Pub Date: June 25, 2022
ISBN: 9798837056529
Page Count: 389
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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