The Night Agent by Matthew Quirk

The book opens with an obviously pissed off FBI agent Peter Sutherland walking up the path to a DC mansion carrying a long handle axe.

Got your attention?

Sutherland works the emergency phone desk in the White House’s situation room complex. When someone connected to the White House is in trouble, they call, and these ‘night agents’ direct the call to the best possible source of help. A job with months of nothing until 'that call' comes in.

He was hired by Diane Farr, the chief of staff of President Travers; an outsider whose good fortune (or not, depending on your outlook) ended up winning the job in a colossal upset. Peter had impressed Farr when both were working in Boston and she filed his name away . . . just in case.

Peter has some baggage. Serious baggage. Seems his father was also FBI, but on his watch, some secrets were leaked to the Russians than resulted in a lot of dead assets. The death of his father, under suspicious circumstances, did little to prove innocence or guilt. Peter’s whole life in and out of the FBI has been a race to prove he is not his father’s son.

'That call' comes in. The caller says her aunt and uncle told her to call the number, give a code, and act on instructions given. Turns out auntie and uncle have been undercover assets for the FBI for decades. And dang good at it. So good, that the Russians are at the door, guns blazing, to kill both and obtain a red ledger full of incriminating information on how the Russians were manipulating the US system in order to get assets of their own into power and into the White House.

While specifically told to stay away from the crime scene, Peter goes and stands at the periphery to watch the beginning of the investigation. When headed back to his car, the caller, Rose, intuitively catches his eye and she realizes it was he with whom she talked.

This sets off an ever escalating chain of events as both sides want this red ledger. Over the next week, every safe house, every cop, every Escalade, every fed is a potential threat. No matter who tells Peter to bring her in, he ignores the command and takes her deeper and deeper into the depths of DC to protect her from danger and the multitude of twists and deceptions. His only loyalty is to her safety, not to that which he swore an oath.

Learned about this book from The Real Book Spy who listed it as one of the best political thrillers of 2019. Have to say if I was savvy enough to make up such a list, The Night Agent would certainly be on it. Think of it as a more modern take on the classic Six Days of the Condor. An agent trapped and hunted by both sides with no where to hide from both sides that have reason to stop an innocent from making information public. This books adds a treatment of whether the sins of the father are also the sins of the son. Top drawer political thriller with only one issue: you’ll want to keep reading just one more chapter each night and end up getting too little sleep.

East Coast Don

-->

Cold Barrel Zero by Matthew Quirk

Suppose a man you respected and served under and also saved while serving as a medic is being touted as an operative gone rogue, now with a WMD and planning to carry out his self-imposed mission within the US. The FBI fills you in on what your former commander has done, but you remain both skeptical and unsure; it's been over 10 years so maybe he has changed after so many years of black operations.  

Then your former commander finds and grabs you (and your girlfriend). His side of the story is remarkably different. Help him or turn him in? 

Thomas Byrne was the Navy corpsman with Ranger skills. He is assigned to Hayes' group that conducts the blackest of black operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran . . . most anywhere. One ambush nearly killed Hayes had it not been for Byrne's two unique skill sets.

After being appropriately medaled for heroism, Byrne up and quits once he got accepted to medical school. Now he is a contract ER doc, going from hospital to hospital as he is needed. His most recent gig is in southern California. While in California, the personnel office that houses files on all operatives regardless of which of the alphabet services these folks serve is burglarized. All their personal info is out there, somewhere.

The FBI and an Army officer named Riggs seek out Byrne for information on Hayes; Byrne is the only one who served under Hayes that is unaccounted for. They tell him Hayes has acquired a WMD, and it's now missing, last seen in California. Riggs is convinced that Hayes has it.

Byrne pleads his innocence, but while he is trying to reconcile his past with Hayes' present, he and his girlfriend are snatched. Now Hayes, a guru at subtle manipulation, weaves his version of what's going on.

It all dates back to a mission in Afghanistan that went south resulting in the mass execution of friendly villagers. An event that hardened the commitment of future jihadi's. Byrne has to decide whose story to believe, Hayes or Riggs.

This is Quirk's third book; the other two were reasonably received by the boys here at MRB.  But I think I'd be safe in saying that this tale of conflicting loyalties far exceeds his earlier two efforts. In this book, Quirk delivers a frantic chase across airports, freeways, warehouses, safe houses, isolated coastal California coves, more freeways, a black naval vessel.  For thriller fans, Quirk delivers in spades. A breakneck pace with confrontations on nearly every page. Tough to put this one down, trust me.

Available April 30, 2016

ECD

The Directive by Matthew Quirk

The Directive is a sequel to Matthew Quirk’s first novel, The 500 which was previously reviewed on MRB.  Protagonist Mike Ford returns for another thrilling adventure where as an ex-con man he is sucked back into his former life of deception and double cross for one last score that will save his family.

Ford has done an exemplary job of turning his life around.  Raised and trained by shifty con artists, his father and his older brother, Mike breaks away as a teenager and works his way through college and Harvard Law School.  He becomes a high powered Washington lobbyist and meets his fiancée, Annie Clarke.  Annie encourages Mike to reconnect with his brother, Jack.  Mike finds Jack in a conspiracy to steal the Federal Reserve Board’s directive before it is announced to the public.  This information is worth billions to the savvy trader.  But Jack is in over his head and Mike feels compelled to rescue him.  Mike too is pulled into the con and is forced to use his skills from his criminal past.  Mike’s only hope is to go along with the heist and look to con the powerful conspirators.  But these people are professional con artists themselves and anticipate Mike’s attempt to sabotage the con.  Now Mike is in over his head placing the lives of Annie and Jack as well as his own in danger.

Quirk tells a reasonably good story in The Directive.  The Mike Ford character is well developed and the plot plausible.  He inserts enough twists and turns to keep you interested and curious about the next development.  But I just couldn’t connect with the characters.  Mike and Annie’s relationship seems mechanical and lacks passion.  As for Mike and Jack, I feel like they will always be con artists and never find the straight and narrow... that’s probably the only way to continue the series.  So for me The Directive is a good airplane book but not a blockbuster.

The 500 by Matthew Quirk

Recently graduated lawyer with a bit of a checkered past lands a sweet job at a high powered firm who pays off all his bill, expects 100hr a week until he finds out their real clients are mostly crooks. Oh wait, that’s John Grishman’s The Firm.

No Mitch McDeere here. It’s Tom Ford. Kid thief whose goal as a lawyer is to earn enough money to pay off the medical bill of her cancer-stricken mom. Where’s dad? In jail (remember, McDeere’s brother was in jail). Ford gets a job with a lobbying group in Washington. The goal of the boss is influence with and over a shady group known as The 500, the 500 most powerful movers/shakers around.

Ford displays considerable talent at getting information that can be used as ammunition to get most anything through Congress or not through, depending on what's best for his boss. His skills get him promoted pretty quickly, right up to a move by his boss to steer a couple congressmen and a supreme court justice to modify some laws that will make it possible for a Serbian war criminal access to the US. Fords issue is whether he should “Die in infamy, honor intact or live in glory, corrupted.” What to do . . 

Sounds a lot like The Firm, right? And Hollywood has picked up on it, too. This debut book by Quirk is a very fast read written remarkably similar to the style of early Grisham, which wasn’t all bad. Doesn’t break any new ground, but is an easy way to spend a few hours with a kick ass legal thriller.