Two durable heroes anchor a briskly paced tale of retribution, intrigue, and a daring mission.
A thriller focuses on terrorism, international political unrest, and a married couple who always find themselves on the run.
This fourth installment of Freda’s action series featuring Samantha and James Coppi begins at a heavily attended Baptist church service in northwest Texas where Sam’s father is the pastor. It’s also where a van full of armed Palestinian nationalists lie in wait, primed to swoop in and terrorize the congregation. Unlucky for the Palestinians is the appearance of James, an Army veteran, CIA operative, and private detective, whose scheduled pulpit speech is interrupted by the violence. He courageously intervenes and saves most of the congregants from harm but, in doing so, has now become the target of a Palestinian terrorist group and its ruthless leader. The main henchman, Faakhir, is sent back to exact lethal vengeance (“qisas”) on James and his entire family for thwarting the terrorist plot at the church, even after the detective receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his bravery. Sam and James regroup at their tony Colorado horse ranch, but this respite is short-lived, as they turn their attention to selling the family fashion empire, embarking on a railroad venture, and negotiating a business contract with a royal prince. After James rushes off to Iran to aid in the exile efforts of the shah, Sam is viciously kidnapped and held as bait to get to her husband. Set against the political unrest of the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s, when Middle Eastern terrorism expanded outward, the violence is harrowing and palpable. Thankfully, several subplots involving the evolution of Sam and James’ relationship and their loving interactions with their children and extended family inject much-needed humanity into a story that at times is overwhelmingly brutal. The mad dash to save Sam puts James in mortal danger as the novel globe-trots through Afghanistan, Paris, Lebanon, Monaco, and Pakistan. As evidenced in previous volumes, Freda’s protagonists remain a uniquely daring duo, and the author’s knack for high-speed plotting, dastardly villains, and consistent action is once again on full display in this exciting thrill ride. International suspense fans new to the series will find this thriller satisfying but may want to familiarize themselves with the beginning of Sam and James’ adventures in the inaugural volume, A Police Action (2017).
Two durable heroes anchor a briskly paced tale of retribution, intrigue, and a daring mission.Pub Date: Dec. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-66321-220-7
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Iuniverse Inc
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Plenty of excitement for Clancy fans.
Chinese president Li Jian Jun plans a sneak attack on Taiwan, and it’s up to the Jack Ryan administration to stop him without going to war.
President Li announces a naval exercise, but his real plan is Operation Sea Serpent, the lightning reunification of Taiwan. His minister of defense, Admiral Qin Hâiyû, thinks the idea is crazy because a great number of people would die, but he can’t say so. Li is not a man to be challenged, and he’s already had one of his ministers executed. But Qin wants to stop the war before it begins. Perhaps he can get word to the Americans so they can cut off the mad scheme, and he’s troubled by whether his actions will make him a traitor or a patriot. A Western asset nicknamed the Spider helps facilitate his dangerous disappearance as he attempts to leave China, and authorities in Beijing don’t know if he’s been kidnapped or has defected. Meanwhile, the Ryan administration wants to get him safely extracted from mainland China. President Ryan orders that an American naval vessel will transit through the Strait of Taiwan, which the People’s Republic has blockaded. Will there be a bloody showdown that triggers a major war? So much can go wrong, and there are series regulars like John Clark and Ding Chavez at the tip of the spear. And there’s also Katie Ryan, a lieutenant commander with the Office of Naval Intelligence who’s deployed to Taiwan because she’s “one hell of an intelligence analyst” who “thinks outside the box.” She’s a “rising star” who refuses to trade on her relationship with her father, President Ryan. There’s not much violence, although there’s enough to call it a military thriller. One brave American is fading fast from a round to his chest, but he has time to smile about that “hot” Katie Ryan. (Yes, yes, we all like the Ryans.) The novel’s big question is not which nation wins, but whether they fight. Bravery and clear thinking will have to come from both sides. By the way, Jack Junior isn’t in this one—it’s Katie’s time to shine.
Plenty of excitement for Clancy fans.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593717974
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
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BOOK REVIEW
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