The Other Woman

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Following the blog’s new trial guideline, I’m keeping this review to a maximum of six sentences. 

If you’ve been following the blog, then you’ll know I’m a fan of Daniel Silva, and he’s done it again. Gabriel Allon, after serving as Israel’s most important intelligence officer and assassin, is now the head of the Office, the unofficial name of Israel’s international intelligence agency. He was in the process of bringing in his most important asset from the Kremlin when the man was brutally murdered in Vienna, the site of so many of Allon’s prior traumas. That murder led Allon to begin the hunt for the mole that had to be inside British intelligence. As usual, the plot involved all the usual characters that have been developed over the course of the 18 Allon novels. The plot is excellent and contemporary, and if you like espionage stories, this book will keep you engaged until the last page.

Borderless

Following the blog’s new trial guideline, I’m keeping this review to a maximum of six sentences. This is a prepublication review, and I’ll add the cover art when it becomes available:

In February 2018, I raved about Eliot Peper’s book Bandwidth, and if you haven’t read that one yet, then you’re already falling behind this prolific author. Now, he’s about to release the next novel, Borderless, continuing this near future look at the power behind those who control “the feed,” access to the internet which has only become more critical to everyone, to every government, and every company world wide. Commonwealth is the company which now owns and controls the feed, and the company has decided to impose a carbon tax. Immediately, the carbon tax became de facto international law – no one could risk opting out, but many hated this new tax and many wanted to make such global decisions. As the overheated climate began to favorably respond to reduced emissions as the result of the tax, one might ask, what could go wrong? Have a look at this story because Peper just might be the hottest young author who is writing today.

The Travelers

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The Travelers by Chris Pavone was recommended by author Eliot Peper, It’s Pavone’s third espionage novel. Will Rhodes is a travel writer for a longstanding New York high-end travel magazine. His wife, Chloe, had worked there until their marriage three years before, but she quit apparently for fear that their careers might suffer while working for the same company. As a travel writer, Will continued to travel the world, and he wrote about the best of luxury travel, about great places, great wines and great food. He was deeply in love with Chloe, but he kept bumping into a very hot woman who kept trying to recruit will to work for her, allegedly a CIA operative. She got Will into bed and then threatened to provide Chloe with evidence of their liaison if he did not do what she wanted. Would the CIA really have it’s operatives use sexual blackmail?

So, all was not as it appeared, either at the Travelers agency, or at the CIA, or with Chloe. This was a complex plot with lots of characters and action that moved rapidly around the world. It was a captivating read to the end. Now I’m tempted to jump into Pavone’s earlier books, but I do have a couple other books that are calling to me from my reading queue. Thanks Eliot for the recommendation. You haven’t steered me wrong yet.

The Trespasser

This is the sixth Tana French book reviewed in the blog, so you we’ve liked her enough to keep reading her work. However, the sixth book, The Trespasser, simply did not hold my interest despite an effort to do so. I got to the 48% mark before I abandoned the effort. My wife quit reading this one long before that. I could not identify with Detective Garda Antoinette Conway or the other characters that were used to fill out the action, and the action dragged along to the point I simply didn’t care to stay engaged. I don’t need to fill you in on the plot (or non-plot) since this book does not get my recommendation.

Spy Master

Spy Master is the 18^th book in the Scot Harvath series by Brad Thor, and if you’ve read any of the first 17, then you know what you’ll get. Except, this one may be Thor’s best. This book is due out the first week of July 2018, and many thanks to Atria book for this prepublication copy.

This is a cannot-put-it-down novel regarding the intent of a secret organization, that is surely Russia, to pull NATO into a war. Reed Carlton, the founder of The Carlton Group, a private government contractor that black ops – sometimes brutal ones. But Carlton is not only past his prime, he now has severe Alzheimer’s Disease and has become a liability. He can’t remember much of the history of his organization, some of which only he knew about. Now, he sometimes talks to the wrong people, so he’s become a national security risk. More often, he can’t remember information that Harvath needs to know.

Harvath has avoided moving into the head office, much like Daniel Silva has steadily developed his series about Gabriel Allon. With Carlton out of the picture, Harvath is splitting his time between the office and the field while also relying on his office partner, Lydia Ryan. If you’re a Brad Thor fan, you don’t need to know any more about the plot. If you’ve not read Thor before, start at the beginning and work your way forward. This could be a stand alone book, but if you can, start with the first book, The Lions of Lucerne.