The List (Slough House #2.5) 3Stars

 

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Title: The List
Series: Slough House #2.5
Author: Mick Herron
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 44
Words: 17K
Publish: 2015

This was a nice little novella about some lazy guy in MI5 getting played. We know the stakes aren’t big (no 9/11 circumstances like in the previous book) but this is a good view into the “games” that go on. Definitely not a work environment I’d ever want to be in. I’d end up shooting people when I found out I’d been manipulated and lied to just because my boss thought it would be fun.

There was enough separation from the character though that I didn’t get upset at what was going on. It also helps that most of the main characters in these Slough House stories ARE screwups in one way or another and I feel they deserve what they get coming to them. John Bachelor’s job was to go around and make sure these cold war era spies were being taken care of, even if they were not living the high life. And he couldn’t even be bothered to do that, which is why everything happens in this story. He’s a lazy bum and I didn’t feel bad at all about him reaping the consequences. I do have to say that the author does a fantastic job of walking that line of describing characters in such a way that I don’t want to kill them myself but I also don’t mind if they fail. That’s a real tightrope and so far, Herron has walked it without a hitch.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher & Bookstooge

Dieter Hess, an aged spy, is dead, and John Bachelor, his MI5 handler, is in deep, deep trouble. Death has revealed that deceased had been keeping a secret second bank account—and there’s only ever one reason a spy has a secret second bank account. The question of whether he was a double agent must be resolved, and its answer may undo an entire career’s worth of spy secrets.

The List refers to a list of people that Hess had on hand. He was convincing the German spy agency that the people on this list were potential material and they were paying him to keep tabs on them. Only, every person on the list but one was in no condition to even be talking, much less spying. Bachelor tracks down the one viable candidate and convinces her to be a spy for England while pretending to be a spy for the Germans. And at the end of the novella we find out she was originally working for the Germans the entire time. So Bachelor is now paying a German spy and hired her into the English Intelligence Agency.

Blood Standard (Isaiah Coleridge #1) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Blood Standard
Series: Isaiah Coleridge #1
Author: Laird Barron
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 288
Words: 81K
Publish: 2018

I enjoyed this anti-hero badguy makes good, well, not so bad anyway. Nothing particularly stood out good or bad, which is why it is getting that middle of the road rating of 3stars. It’s good enough that I plan on reading the rest of the trilogy.

But unless those two books improve my opinion dramatically, I do not plan on seeking out any other work by the author. I probably shouldn’t base any future plans on this book alone. But really, outside of the main character being big and beating up even worse people than himself, there’s not much else to discuss. So my brain goes down these weird little paths, and since I’m an inveterate planner, it usually goes down a planning path. Even if there isn’t enough data to do any actual planning on. Therefore, my NEW plan is to finish this trilogy and reserve judgment.

Hahhaahahahahahahaa, riiiiiight, ME, reserving judgment. My goodness, sometimes I just crack myself up.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher and Bookstooge

Isaiah Coleridge is a mob enforcer in Alaska--he's tough, seen a lot, and dished out more. But when he forcibly ends the moneymaking scheme of a made man, he gets in the kind of trouble that can lead to a bullet behind the ear. Saved by the grace of his boss and exiled to upstate New York, Isaiah begins a new life, a quiet life without gunshots or explosions. Except a teenage girl disappears, and Isaiah isn't one to let that slip by. And delving into the underworld to track this missing girl will get him exactly the kind of notice he was warned to avoid.

After beating up lots of people and threatening lots of people and getting almost killed by crooked cops, Isaiah founds her corpse. Her horse had thrown her in the woods and she’d died from hitting her head. No big mystery at all. Isaiah just wasted all that time and energy for nothing. So much for laying low.

Mrs Pollifax and the Golden Triangle (Mrs Pollifax #8) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Mrs Pollifax and the Golden Triangle
Series: Mrs Pollifax #8
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 162
Words: 58K
Publish: 1988

Thankfully, there is no torture. Mrs P still gets in a world of trouble and it’s tense as all get out, as Cyrus (her husband) gets kidnapped and its up to Mrs P to rescue him, in the jungles of Thailand.

A romping good time with thugs, rogue military people, peaceful wise and gentle “natives” and some monk who is probably an American who gave it all up decades ago plus some hijinks going on at the CIA, those lovable scamps *heart

Hahahahahaa. I think I enjoyed this as much as I did simply because of the lack of torture. It is mentioned in this book and Mrs P is realizing she has to work through what happened to her, BUT, and I think this is why I like this series so much, she doesn’t let that incident stop her from doing what she needs to in the here and now. She watches her husband be kidnapped and instead of fainting or falling apart, she enlists the aid of a dubious man she just met and starts tracking down the vehicle. We get glimpses into her mind, so we the readers know how upset, conflicted and concerned she is, but she still takes action. Man, there are some male book characters who don’t have balls as big as Mrs P, that’s for sure! (and I wish she would karate chop them to death for the record)

When it comes to this series, I think I’m in it until the very end. As long as there isn’t any more torture in Mrs P’s future.

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia.org & Bookstooge

This time Mrs. Pollifax's assignment seems simple: while she and her husband Cyrus Reed are vacationing in Thailand, she is to pick up some valuable information on drug smuggling from an informant called Ruamsak. Everything goes awry immediately: Ruamsak is murdered, Cyrus is kidnapped, and Emily joins forces with Bonchoo, an intriguing stranger with complex reasons of his own for wanting to find Cyrus. They meet the Akha people in the jungle. The usual phalanx of muddled but supportive CIA agents try to follow Emily through the jungles of Thailand and are seriously rattled when one of their directors abruptly vanishes, only to reappear in the Golden Triangle as the head of all illicit drug trafficking. Pollifax needs all her wiles and her considerable skills in the martial arts, not only to track her husband but also to put a serious dent in the heroin trade.

Bonchoo is Ruamsak and he gets his payment from Mrs Pollifax. Cyrus is rescued, heroin is burnt, the CIA bigwig is found out that he was covering for his brother, who is now dead, so nobody at the CIA cares, Mrs Pollifax and Cyrus make it home safe and sound and Mrs P doesn’t quit the CIA (even though she should).

• All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

Moonraker (James Bond #3) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Moonraker
Series: James Bond #3
Author: Ian Fleming
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 211
Words: 74K
Publish: 1955

Matt reviewed the movie version of Moonraker last year, and while I knew from his review that the movie and book shared almost nothing, I still had this idea of Bond going into space and doing something.

Not in this book.

A Nazi, who has hidden his old allegiances, has built a super missile that can reach anywhere in Europe from England. This is supposed to give England the upper edge and the government is just wild about it. Everything seems to be going smoothly until one of their two operatives dies. Bond replaces him and tries to find out what “might” be going on. Agent Girl and Bond bond over an almost successful assassination attempt on them both and realize the German guy and his 50-100 “scyenzetists” are nazis in disguise who are hellbent on sending a nuclear tipped missile into the center of London with help from the Russkies.

While this was fun, it was also the most ridiculuous thing I have read in a very long time. The English government is sinking tons of money into this military project and they only have 2 agents looking out for their interests? There was no oversite, no military presence double and triple checking everything? Bond and Agent Girl survive the rocket taking off and the superheated steam it produces by dunking themselves in cold water 10minutes before it happens? Plus some other things. I don’t mind ridiculous in many stories if it doesn’t take me out of the story, but those two things I mentioned just felt like hitting a brickwall while going 60mph.

I still enjoyed the adventure and it didn’t make me want to stop, but it did make me glad that I’m switching this series and Discworld every three to four books. I don’t think I could read more than three of these in one rotation.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

The British Secret Service agent James Bond is asked by his superior, M, to join him at M's club, Blades. A club member, the multi-millionaire businessman Sir Hugo Drax, is winning considerable money playing bridge, seemingly against the odds. M suspects Drax is cheating, and while claiming indifference, is concerned as to why a multi-millionaire and national hero would cheat. Bond confirms Drax's deception and manages to turn the tables—aided by a stacked deck of cards—and wins £15,000 (about seven times his own annual salary).

Drax is the product of a mysterious background, purportedly unknown even to himself. Presumed to have been a British Army soldier during the Second World War, he was badly injured and stricken with amnesia in the explosion of a bomb planted by a German saboteur at a British field headquarters. After extensive rehabilitation in an army hospital, he returned home to become a wealthy industrialist. After building his fortune and establishing himself in business and society, Drax started building the "Moonraker", Britain's first nuclear missile project, intended to defend Britain against its Cold War enemies. The Moonraker rocket is an upgraded V-2 rocket using liquid hydrogen and fluorine as propellants; to withstand the ultra-high combustion temperatures of its engine, it uses columbite, in which Drax had a monopoly. Because the rocket's engine can withstand high heat, the Moonraker is able to use these powerful fuels, expanding its range across Europe.

After a Ministry of Supply security officer working at the project is shot dead, M assigns Bond to replace him and also to investigate what has been going on at the missile-building base, located between Dover and Deal on the south coast of England. All the rocket scientists working on the project are German. At his post on the complex, Bond meets Gala Brand, a beautiful police Special Branch officer working undercover as Drax's personal assistant. Bond also uncovers clues concerning his predecessor's death, concluding that the man may have been killed for witnessing a submarine off the coast.

Bond catches Drax's henchman Krebs snooping through his room. Later, an attempted assassination by triggering a landslide nearly kills Bond and Brand, as they sunbathe beneath the Dover cliffs. Drax takes Brand to London, where she discovers the truth about the Moonraker by comparing her own launch trajectory figures with those in a notebook picked from Drax's pocket. She is captured by Krebs, and finds herself captive in a secret radio homing station—intended to serve as a beacon for the missile's guidance system—in the heart of London. While Brand is being taken back to the Moonraker facility by Drax, Bond gives chase, but is also captured by Drax and Krebs.

Drax tells Bond that he was never a British soldier and has never suffered from amnesia: his real name is Graf Hugo von der Drache, the German commander of a Werwolf commando unit. Disguised in an Allied uniform, he was the saboteur whose team placed the car bomb at the army field headquarters, only to be injured himself in the detonation. The amnesia story was simply a cover he used while recovering in hospital to avoid recognition, although it would lead to a whole new British identity. Drax remains a dedicated Nazi, bent on revenge against England for the wartime defeat of his Fatherland and his prior history of social slights suffered as a youth growing up in an English boarding school before the war. He explains that he now means to destroy London, with a Soviet-supplied nuclear warhead that has been secretly fitted to the Moonraker. His company is also selling the British pound short in order to make a huge profit from the disaster.

Brand and Bond are imprisoned where the blast from the Moonraker's engines will incinerate them, to leave no trace of them once the missile is launched. Before the launch, the couple escape. Brand gives Bond the coordinates he needs to redirect the gyros and send the Moonraker into the sea. Having been in collaboration with Soviet Intelligence all along, Drax and his henchmen escape by Soviet submarine—only to be killed as the vessel makes its escape through the waters onto which the Moonraker has been re-targeted. After their debriefing at headquarters, Bond meets up with Brand, expecting her company—but they part ways after she reveals that she is engaged to a fellow Special Branch officer.

Dead Lions (Slough House #2) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Dead Lions
Series: Slough House #2
Author: Mick Herron
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 286
Words: 104K
Publish: 2013

Another enjoyable ride on the Screwup Train. Herron (the author) kills off another character and I was rather surprised. I guess it means that none of the sub-characters are safe and I should expect somebody from Slough House to die in each story. That has the added benefit, for the author, of allowing him to bring on new screwups in each new book, even if they don’t play a big part. They are new fodder.

Also on the plus side, River Carter also plays a much smaller part. He’s just one among the 5 or 6. I was able to handle that.

★★★✬☆

From the Publisher

Now the slow horses have a chance at redemption. An old Cold War-era spy is found dead on a bus outside Oxford, far from his usual haunts. The despicable, irascible Jackson Lamb is convinced Dickie Bow was murdered. As the agents dig into their fallen comrade's circumstances, they uncover a shadowy tangle of ancient Cold War secrets that seem to lead back to a man named Alexander Popov, who is either a Soviet bogeyman or the most dangerous man in the world. How many more people will have to die to keep those secrets buried?

Mrs Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha (Mrs Pollifax #7) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Mrs Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha
Series: Mrs Pollifax #7
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 166
Words: 58K
Publish: 1985

A good story, but ugh, two issues.

First, Mrs Pollifax is kidnapped and tortured. I was not happy with having that in this series. I don’t like women being tortured and I really don’t like older women being tortured. It wasn’t graphic, but the very idea really blunted my enjoyment.

Second, once again, was Gilman’s deliberate blind eye to how evil the Chinese Communist Party was/is. This story revolves around the silent civil war that went on between Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek after their deaths. The Nationalists (led by Kai-shek) were not good people. They were corrupt and despotic, like any other tyranny. Gilman focuses on that, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. My problem is that she deliberately turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed by Zedong and the Communists. Much like in “Mrs Pollifax on the China Station”, Gilman sounds more like a propagandist for the Communists than anything else. I can’t turn a blind eye to that. I wondered about looking more into this, but so far, most of the time when I look into an author’s personal life, it doesn’t turn out well. I think I’ll save that for when I’ve finished the “Mrs P” series.

The story itself is filled with exciting twists and turns and Mrs P once again mostly figures things out using her outsiders perspective. Since she is now married, that adds a bit of tension as we get things from her husband’s perspective as well. Given that she was tortured and almost killed, and given how her superior (an agent named Carstairs) reacted to that, I don’t see how Mrs P won’t be forcibly retired. If I was her husband, torture is where I would draw the line. So I’m looking forward to how that conundrum is going to be solved, since we’re only at the halfway mark of the series :-D

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia.org

Mrs. Pollifax flies on a moment's notice to Hong Kong, to contact Sheng Ti, whom she met in an earlier book, and find out what is going on at Feng Imports where Sheng Ti is working for an agent named Detwiler. Detwiler's reports to the CIA have proved to be false, so he is suspected of being a counterspy and giving evidence to the enemy. Mrs. Pollifax meets some other interesting characters, including a psychic and another old friend, who is a reformed cat burglar, while in pursuit of the truth about Feng Imports. She is captured and tortured, but prevails as always.

• All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

Live and Let Die (James Bond #2) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Live and Let Die
Series: James Bond #2
Author: Ian Fleming
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 199
Words: 69K
Publish: 1954

Much more enjoyable than Casino Royale. Not a hint of misogny even while being just as action packed, even more so in fact.

Mr Big is a great villain. He’s smart and covers all the angles but he’s still a brutal thug at heart and that comes through in every interaction Bond has with him. Him being devoured by the very creatures he was using to protect himself was fantastic.

It’s amazing how much goes on and yet Bond still seems to mostly just travel around. This is very much a Cold War thriller and not anything like the Jason Bourne movies. A gentleman’s game. I have a feeling that is the path these stories will follow.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

The British Secret Service agent James Bond is sent by his superior, M, to New York City to investigate "Mr Big", real name Buonaparte Ignace Gallia. Bond's target is an agent of the Soviet counterintelligence organisation SMERSH, and an underworld voodoo leader who is suspected of selling 17th-century gold coins to finance Soviet spy operations in America. These gold coins have been turning up in the Harlem section of New York City and in Florida and are suspected of being part of a treasure that was buried in Jamaica by the pirate Henry Morgan.

In New York, Bond meets up with his counterpart in the CIA, Felix Leiter. The two visit some of Mr Big's nightclubs in Harlem, but are captured. Bond is interrogated by Mr Big, who uses his fortune-telling employee, Solitaire (so named because she excludes men from her life), to determine if Bond is telling the truth. Solitaire lies to Mr Big, supporting Bond's cover story. Mr Big decides to release Bond and Leiter, and has one of Bond's fingers broken. On leaving, Bond kills several of Mr Big's men; Leiter is released with minimal physical harm by a gang member, sympathetic because of a shared appreciation of jazz.

Solitaire later leaves Mr Big and contacts Bond; the couple travel by train to St. Petersburg, Florida, where they meet Leiter. While Bond and Leiter are scouting one of Mr Big's warehouses used for storing exotic fish, Solitaire is kidnapped by Mr Big's minions. Leiter later returns to the warehouse by himself, but is either captured and fed to a shark or tricked into standing on a trap door over the shark tank through which he falls; he survives, but loses an arm and a leg. Bond finds him in their safe house with a note pinned to his chest "He disagreed with something that ate him".[1] Bond then investigates the warehouse himself and discovers that Mr Big is smuggling gold coins by hiding them in the bottom of fish tanks holding poisonous tropical fish, which he is bringing into the US. He is attacked in the warehouse by "the Robber", Mr Big's gunman, and in the resultant gunfight Bond outwits the Robber and causes him to fall into the shark tank.

Bond continues his mission in Jamaica, where he meets a local fisherman, Quarrel, and John Strangways, the head of the local MI6 station. Quarrel gives Bond training in scuba diving in the local waters. Bond swims through shark- and barracuda-infested waters to Mr Big's island and manages to plant a limpet mine on the hull of his yacht before being captured once again by Mr Big. Bond is reunited with Solitaire; the following morning Mr Big ties the couple to a line behind his yacht and plans to drag them over the shallow coral reef and into deeper water so that the sharks and barracuda that he attracts in to the area with regular feedings will eat them.

Bond and Solitaire are saved when the limpet mine explodes seconds before they are dragged over the reef. Though temporarily stunned by the explosion and injured on the coral, they are protected from the explosion by the reef and Bond watches as Mr Big, who survived the explosion, is killed by the sharks and barracuda.

Slow Horses (Slough House #1) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Slow Horses
Series: Slough House #1
Author: Mick Herron
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 309
Words: 112K
Publish: 2010

Fraggle recommended this series in the Recommend Me a Book V post and I think getting to it within seven months is pretty fast, for me :-)

Slough House is where British secret agents go when they are failures. Now, there are different kinds of failures and so you get a real disparate group of people here. We follow River Cartwright and boy, he IS a failure. Not because of the incident that sent him to Slough House (turns out he was framed) but because he won’t listen to anyone or stop to think through the consequences of what he wants to do. Plus, he just doesn’t listen, literally. There were several times where the author has him “tune out” of a conversation and River goes into his own headspace. I was kind of hoping he would die and make the world a better place.

But River Cartwright isn’t the only character and that is the saving grace of this book. From an obnoxious hacker who nobody likes to the head of Slough House, these people ARE people. They aren’t cliches or stereotypes but actual people and I enjoyed that. The plot about MI5 “solving” a problem it purposely created and having it go off the rails was pretty good.

I was pretty happy with this book and I think I’ll be reading more in the series. That is always a good feeling.

★★★✬☆

From Wikipedia

Slough House is an MI5 office overseen by Jackson Lamb, a crotchety Cold War era agent, where "Slow Horses" (disgraced agents) are relegated to pushing paper and sorting through bins.

Everyone has a reason for being at Slough House. River Cartwright accidentally shut down London King's Cross railway station during a training assessment, a mistake he claimed resulted from being fed false information. Louisa Guy misplaced an arms dealer, Min Harper left confidential information on a train and Roddy Ho for his repulsive personality. Only Sidonie "Sid" Baker, a new agent at Slough House has unknown origins. Baker starts to be given assignments in the field and quickly attracts the envy of other agents. After Baker is tasked with following a disgraced conservative journalist, Robert Hobden, Cartwright does everything he can to get involved.

When Hassan Ahmed, a British-Pakistani university student, is kidnapped and held hostage by the white nationalist group Sons of Albion, the agents of Slough House begin to wonder what they can do to help. The Kidnappers announce they will behead Ahmed on a live stream in 36 hours, rain, hail or shine. What the agents of Slough House don't know is that the terrorists have been infiltrated by a former Slow Horse, Alan Black, who has been secretly tasked by the deputy director of MI5, Diana Taverner, to sabotage the Kidnappers as a publicity stunt for the agency.

Hobden suspects foul play, as he previously overheard Taverner in a bar discussing creating sting operations on far-right political groups. When Hobden begins to make attempts to expose the scheme publicly, Taverner convinces Jed Moody, a discontent Slough House agent with a background in international espionage, to plan an assassination attempt on Hobden. Unbeknownst to Moody, Cartwright and Baker are monitoring Hobden's house the night he attempts a masked break-in. Before noticing the intruder, Baker reveals to Cartwright she was assigned to Slough House to survey him. The pair rush to Hobden's defence. A violent scuffle results in Moody accidentally shooting Baker. Hobden and Moody flee into the night, while River rushes Baker to the hospital.

Realising what he's done, Moody returns to Slough House for supplies in preparation to go on the run. Both Louisa Guy and Min Harper return to work after hours for some private time together and rush to attack the masked intruder. The embroiled Moody and Harper fall down the office stairs, where Moody dies instantly after breaking his neck on impact. After Jackson Lamb is alerted to the death of two of his in one night, he begins to piece together Taverner's meddling in his affairs.

Hobden rushes to the house of Peter Judd, a conservative politician. While Judd is reluctant to help Hobden expose MI5's antics, Hobden threatens to release a compromising photo of a young Judd throwing a Nazi salute.

Meanwhile, the kidnappers have discovered and killed the traitor within their ranks. After they change their plans and take their hostage on the road, Taverner begins to look to hide her involvement. Taverner begins to alert people within MI5 that one of the kidnappers was a former Slow Horse and tries to pin the situation on Jackson Lamb. Lamb decides to break into the MI5 headquarters with Cartwright to find evidence and confront Taverner with proof she is framing the agents of Slough House.

The other Slow Horses work to track down the van the kidnappers had hired. Working through the known aliases of the former Slough House agent who infiltrated the group, the Slow Horses find the booking. Roddy Ho works out how to hack the rental company's navigation system and they alert the police of the forest where the kidnappers have stopped. The two remaining kidnappers in the meantime had begun to argue, disagreeing about actually killing Hassan. Hassan uses the opportunity to escape and hide in the forest before he is saved by the police.

In the days after, it is announced that Robert Hobden died in a hit-and-run accident and Cartwright discovers all records of Sid Baker have been wiped from existence, her status now unknown.

Mrs Pollifax on the China Station (Mrs Pollifax #6) 4.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Mrs Pollifax on the China Station
Series: Mrs Pollifax #6
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 174
Words: 62K
Publish: 1983

Absolutely delightful! I have been alternating Mrs Pollifax with the Alphabet Mystery series and I must say, it is a true delight to return to the adventures of Emily Pollifax.

She is calm, poised and while not always “in control”, she never allows the circumstances around her to impede what she must do. In this book near the end, she has to face down an armed Russian sleeper agent and ends up karate chopping him to death. Scenes like that are why this isn’t “cozy”. She’s also old enough not to fall to pieces after such an act. She’s in no way stupid and I for one appreciate that Gilman actually writes her character to be intelligent.

Another successful foray into the underbelly world of the CIA. Mrs Pollifax hasn’t failed me yet and I doubt she’d fail you either.

★★★★✬

From Wikipedia.org

Mrs. Pollifax is thrilled when Mr. Carstairs, her boss at the CIA, gives her an assignment in China to help rescue a prisoner from a labor camp. As luck would have it, she has recently completed a course in Chinese history, so she is primed and ready to go. She joins a tour group and is told that one of the other group members is actually a CIA agent who will become her partner later on. She tries unsuccessfully to detect her future partner and is very surprised when the agent's identity is revealed. As the action speeds up she finds the labor camp, rides a runaway horse, and encounters some rough stuff from a Russian spy.

• All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

Casino Royale (James Bond #1) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Casino Royale
Series: James Bond #1
Author: Ian Fleming
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 157
Words: 51K
Publish: 1953

I’ve seen various Bond films over the years, just at random and usually thought of them as empty action films (except for the ones where the directors tried to make Bond a comedian) but enjoyable, like popcorn. I’m pretty sure I read one or two of the novels in highschool too, but I couldn’t even tell you which ones. I’ve also heard what I consider “woke” talk about the books and I wanted to make up my own mind and see what the books actually said, as opposed to some kid spouting off about things he doesn’t know a thing about. This has led me to start reading the entire collection. Or at least, starting the journey and seeing how far I get!

This book was not what I was expecting. At times completely banal (the gambling scenes at the casino were mostly boring) and at others brutal (Bond getting his balls hit/whipped/whatever), I felt some whiplash reading this. Then you had Bond himself. He was definitely a jerk. There’s a scene where the girl, Lynd, is introduced to Bond and she ignores his come on. Bond thinks about how’d like to break her because of that. It was SO wrong. He wasn’t displaying masculinity, but selfish brutishness. There was another instance where Fleming shows us the inside of Bond’s mind and it isn’t a nice place, not a good place. Why Fleming chose to portray Bond this way baffles me.

The twist I never saw coming. I probably should have, given how double agents were such a big thing during the Cold War, but nope, it completely cut me off at the knees.

This was a very see-saw read. It’s why it is getting 3stars and not something higher. I think I’ll have to take each book one at a time too and not make any big decisions, yay or nay, about the series as a whole. I guess I’m hoping Fleming’s writing evolves.

★★★☆☆

From Wikipedia

M, the Head of the British Secret Service, assigns James Bond, 007, to play against and bankrupt Le Chiffre, the paymaster for a SMERSH-controlled trade union, in a high-stakes baccarat game at the Royale-les-Eaux casino in northern France. As part of Bond's cover as a rich Jamaican playboy, M also assigns as his companion Vesper Lynd, personal assistant to the Head of Section S (Soviet Union). The CIA and the French Deuxième Bureau also send agents as observers. The game soon turns into an intense confrontation between Le Chiffre and Bond; Le Chiffre wins the first round, cleaning Bond out of his funds. As Bond contemplates the prospect of reporting his failure to M, the CIA agent, Felix Leiter, gives him an envelope of money and a note: "Marshall Aid. Thirty-two million francs. With the compliments of the USA." The game continues, despite the attempts of one of Le Chiffre's minders to kill Bond. Bond eventually wins, taking from Le Chiffre eighty million francs belonging to SMERSH.

Desperate to recover the money, Le Chiffre kidnaps Lynd and tortures Bond, threatening to kill them both if he does not get the money back. During the torture, a SMERSH assassin enters and kills Le Chiffre as punishment for losing the money. The agent does not kill Bond, saying that he has no orders to do so, but cuts a Cyrillic 'Ш' for шпион (shpión, Russian for spy) into Bond's hand so that future SMERSH agents will be able to identify him as such.

Lynd visits Bond every day as he recuperates in hospital, and he gradually realises that he loves her; he even contemplates leaving the Secret Service to settle down with her. When he is released from hospital they spend time together at a quiet guest house and eventually become lovers. One day they see a mysterious man named Gettler tracking their movements, which greatly distresses Lynd. The following morning, Bond finds that she has committed suicide. She leaves behind a note explaining that she had been working as an unwilling double agent for the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. SMERSH had kidnapped her lover, a Polish Royal Air Force pilot, who had revealed information about her under torture; SMERSH then used that information to blackmail her into helping them undermine Bond's mission, including her own faked kidnapping. She had tried to start a new life with Bond, but upon seeing Gettler—a SMERSH agent—she realised that she would never be free of her tormentors, and that staying with Bond would only put him in danger. Bond informs his service of Lynd's duplicity, coldly telling his contact, "The bitch is dead now."

Mrs Pollifax on Safari (Mrs Pollifax #5) 4Stars

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Mrs Pollifax on Safari
Series: Mrs Pollifax #5
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 161
Words: 57K

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Much like the Nero Wolfe books, I have come to realize, albeit much sooner than with Wolfe, than I am thoroughly enjoying these books enough to bump them up to a standard 4star level. They meet all of my criteria for 4stars and I realized I needed to stop being so stingy with my ratings. I’m not going to go broke if I rate a series higher for goodness sake. While I am not going to go all Fraggle and read these back to back to back, I can totally see myself re-reading these in several years. And that “re-readability” is usually the tipping point from 3.5 to 4 stars. Not always, but usually

Mrs Pollifax is roped into another assignment for the CIA and once again is promised it will be a cakewalk. All she has to do is go on a Safari in Africa and while taking pictures on the safari, take pictures of everyone on the safari. Because one of them is a ruthless, unstoppable assassin. So of course everything goes straight to pot and derails like a freight train plunging off a cliff and Mrs Pollifax does a LOT more than just taking pictures.

I know I say this for every book, but Gilman is an absolute master at upping the ante very organically for Mrs Pollifax. Nothing that happens is so outlandish that it makes me suspend my belief in the story or feel like it is Authorial Fiat/Machina Ex Deus. It takes a really good author to write that way and to go from Point A to Point Z, hitting the rest of the alphabet on the journey without making one feel like a lamb being led to the slaughter.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book and I continue to thoroughly enjoy the series. I don’t know how much more of a recommendation I could give. Thankfully, I’m not trying to sell this to you. I’m simply chronicling my enjoyment. If you don’t read this series, that’s fine. It’s your loss alone 🙂

★★★★☆

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From Wikipedia.org

Synopsis – click to open

Mrs. Pollifax is called upon by the CIA to undertake another mission, this time to photograph members of a safari in Zambia, one of whom is an international assassin nicknamed Aristotle. She innocently posts an ad in the local newspaper trying to contact her old friend Farrell from the first book. This leads to major complications, as Farrell is involved with the freedom fighters across the border and has made some enemies. Another entertaining outing and with a bit of romance as a fellow traveler takes a fancy to Mrs. Pollifax.

• All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

A Palm for Mrs Pollifax (Mrs Pollifax #4) 3.5Stars

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: A Palm for Mrs Pollifax
Series: Mrs Pollifax #4
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 170
Words: 58K

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Absolutely delightful, again. I know I say this each book, but Gilman has given us a character and a story where the balance between taut thriller and cozy comfort walk hand in hand with neither overstepping their bounds. How she does this is a mystery to me but I am loving it.

This time around we’re talking plutonium, bombs, kidnappings and coups. And a completely useless Interpol. Which doesn’t surprise me at all.

This time around Mrs P knows she is getting into some really tricky business because it is plutonium, and enough of the stuff to make a suitcase bomb, and an agent has already been murdered. But like a true patriot, and a true adrenaline junkie, she doesn’t let any of that deter her but plows ahead and damn the torpedoes!

I found Gilman’s portrayal of the young boy and his grandmother to be very effective. He didn’t come across as a child genius, but a boy terrified of having his grandmother killed but who is brave enough to TRY something, anything, to get another adult involved. At the same time he wasn’t written as some cutesy little brat either, for which I was extremely thankful. Much like the story and Mrs P herself, Gilman does a masterful job of balancing everything and making him seem real, believable but not making the situation so grim.

I do feel that things are starting to escalate in terms of plot, and with 10 more books to go, I do wonder what Mrs P will encounter next? If she takes on Godzilla or King Kong though, I’ll be done 😉

★★★✬☆

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From Wikipedia.org

Synopsis – click to open

Mrs. Pollifax is dispatched to Switzerland to find some missing plutonium: Mr. Carstairs of the CIA suspects the contraband has been hidden in an upscale clinic in Switzerland. Mrs. Pollifax begins a careful investigation of the guests at the clinic and rapidly befriends a young British man, a Belgian woman, and a young boy and his grandmother from an Arab nation. She soon discovers that very few of the clinic patients are who they claim to be, and she becomes involved in intrigue with men who plan to overthrow the government of a small country. She, of course, displays the courage and ingenuity which Mr. Carstairs has learned to depend on, and she leads her outnumbered friends into the adventure of their lives.

• All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

The Elusive Mrs Pollifax (Mrs Pollifax #3) 3.5Stars

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Elusive Mrs Pollifax
Series: Mrs Pollifax #3
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 166
Words: 55K

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Great, Mrs Pollifax gets involved with hippies AND commies. Just when you think the problem lies outside the USA, you find out that stupid and dumb as dirt hippie teenagers MAKE the problems wherever they go. Ahhhhh, if it had been up to me, I would have let all of them die the most horrible death. That would teach them. Thankfully, Mrs Pollifax takes pity and so the story doesn’t end right at the beginning.

It is incredible how Gilman organically increases the danger level without it feeling like she is forcing things. I never once was thrown out of the story with that “Oh please, THAT couldn’t happen” feeling. While this isn’t quite a “cozy”, it is adjacent to that genre but manages to avoid the pitfalls. I continue to be impressed with Gilman’s skill here.

A simple premise that is well done without being overdone. I appreciate that simplicity.

★★★✬☆

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From Wikipedia.org

Synopsis – click to open

Mrs. Pollifax is sent, as a tourist, on a routine assignment, to deliver the eight forged passports she is carrying, concealed in her hat, to the Bulgarian Underground. Unbeknownst to her, her boss, Carstairs, has been strong-armed into having her take other items along, sewn into her coat. On the way, she meets a group of back-packing college students at an airport, and offers to help when one of them is arrested by the secret police, upon arriving in Sofia. Mrs. Pollifax then leads both friends and foes on a merry chase, as she travels around Bulgaria, on a series of absorbing, and interwoven, adventures, including helping to rescue the student and several political prisoners from the seemingly impregnable Panchevsky Institute

• All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

The Amazing Mrs Pollifax (Mrs Pollifax #2) 3.5Stars

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Amazing Mrs Pollifax
Series: Mrs Pollifax #2
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 173
Words: 60K

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Another wonderful adventure. Oh, I absolutely ADORE Emily Pollifax. She is the kind of person I wish I could meet more of in real life. She doesn’t ignore the horrible situation that she finds herself in in this story (chased by damned commies, governmental agencies of other countries and a rogue double agent) but through it all, she perseveres. If I had been in her situation, I would have crumbled into a smear of ash and blown away into the winds.

Another thing I appreciate about these stories, at least so far, is that nothing feels outlandish. I don’t feel like Gilman pulls authorial fiat just to increase the drama. Her story telling is real and organic and I could totally see things like this happening. Things go wrong in situations and when you’re dealing with spies, counter-spies and double agents, things going wrong is a very bad thing. It just felt “real”. Doesn’t mean it is, but as a casual reader, I was never taken out of the story. Mrs Pollifax doesn’t jump down a 10 story building, shoot 50 badguys and then flap her magical wings and fly to the moon. She puts her head down, she hides with gypsies and she simply tries to survive and do her best to get the woman she was supposed to contact out of the country. And she does it! Without whining or complaining. Amazing!!!!!! Authors today could take a page from Gilman’s style, that is for sure.

★★★✬☆

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From Wikipedia.org

Synopsis – click to open

For this novel, Mrs. Pollifax is tasked by Mr. Carstairs, her CIA superior, to go to Turkey[2][3] and contact Magda Ferenci-Sabo, a known Russian spy and secret double agent[4] who is defecting to the Free World. Emily Pollifax is to give Magda money and a passport which will enable the former spy to leave Turkey. Although Carstairs gives Mrs. Pollifax only 30 minutes to get ready, the plucky widow is ready for another adventure. She flies to Turkey and sees Magda, but is unable to make personal contact before Magda flees. In pursuing her mission, Mrs. Pollifax embarks on a wild ride, matching wits with a diabolical double agent, traveling with Gypsies,[3][5] and again surviving imprisonment. However, characteristically, she befriends unlikely allies along her way.

• All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax (Mrs Pollifax #1) 3.5Stars

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax
Series: Mrs Pollifax #1
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 212
Words: 75K

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First, I’d like to say that this particular post is being shared over at the Irresponsible Reader. He didn’t steal this, or clonk me over the head and hold it hostage. I willingly and of my own free will let it be cross posted. Just so we’re clear. None of you need to take vengeance on my behalf or boost his Lamborghini or steal all that money he’s got squirreled away. No, I can do all of that on my own, thank you very much. But I appreciate your willingness to do such nefarious things on my behalf, I really do. Ok, on to the actual book review.

I first read a Mrs Pollifax story back in 2000. I labeled it a “mystery” and accidentally thought it was written by Agatha Christie. I went close to two decades thinking Mrs Pollifax was just another version of Miss Marple and as such, I avoided the series. It wasn’t until I was getting the Hotel Bookstooge in final order that I realized that Dorothy Gilman was the author and that it wasn’t really a mystery series at all. I eventually tracked down the series and added it to my tbr pile.

Imagine my surprise when I found out this was a series about a little old lady named Emily Pollifax and that she works for the CIA. That immediately threw it out of the cozy mystery genre and straight into the cozy thriller genre. Only, as I read the book, it really wasn’t that cozy, so I decided Mrs Pollifax deserved to go straight to the big leagues and just get the “Thriller” label. I mean, she gets kidnapped by Chinese Commies, escapes their remote fortress and makes it out to sea to get rescue. AND she fulfills her original mission of picking up some super secret ultra superdooper important info. She does all of this without turning into the Black Widow and doing crazy acrobatic stunts that no real person could possibly do.

There are moments of genuine threat and while Emily doesn’t go all Black Widow on the situation, neither does she break down and fall part. She’s what I’d describe as a tough old bird. The world needs more people like her. I thoroughly enjoyed her as a character and am looking forward to see what else Gilman has in store for her creation.

This is also a good time capsule of the times and I enjoyed seeing what the 60’s were like from a non-commie-hippy viewpoint.

★★★✬☆

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From Wikipedia.org

Mrs. Pollifax is an elderly widow who has come to find life dull and is almost ready to end it all out of sheer boredom. Inspired by a newspaper profile of an actress who began her career in later life, she decides to fulfill a childhood ambition and apply for a job as a spy at the CIA. Meanwhile, Carstairs at the CIA is looking for an agent who can pass as a tourist in order to pick up an important package in Mexico. Due to a slight confusion, he thinks Mrs. Pollifax is one of the candidates and decides that Mrs. Pollifax is ideal; Carstairs decided this assignment carries so little danger that even one who is relatively untrained may be sent. So with minimum explanation, Pollifax is ushered off to Mexico City to meet a bookstore owner/secret agent, exchange code phrases, and leave with the package. The courier mission does not go as planned, and Mrs. Pollifax finds herself imprisoned in the Socialist Republic of Albania, facing harsh questioning and possible torture. But she proves to be unusually resourceful, and with her companion’s assistance, manages to outwit the enemy and save the day.

• All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews

Drop Shot (Myron Bolitar #2) 1Star

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Drop Shot
Series: Myron Bolitar #2
Author: Harlan Coben
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 252
Words: 77K

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Sigh, not the way I wanted to start the month’s reading. First, I won’t be continuing this series or reading any more by this author. For the usual immoral reasons, sigh. It was so flipping checkmark too. Then you had an almost rape scene. While I acknowledge that bad men do very bad things, bringing it into fiction as “entertainment” isn’t right. Finally, Myron lets a murderer kill herself to cover up what she did because she’s the mother of his big client and it would destroy his client and he (Bolitar) would lose all the money from being his agent. There are times I can see letting someone get away with murder, I really can. But not for a base motive like money. So all those things coming together made this a very unpleasant read.

★☆☆☆☆

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From Wikipedia

A young woman is shot in cold blood, her lifeless body dumped outside the stadium at the height of the US Open. At one point, her tennis career had skyrocketed. Now headlines were being made by a different young player from the wrong side of the tracks.

When Myron Bolitar investigates the killing, he uncovers a connection between the two players and a six-year-old murder at an exclusive club. Suddenly, Myron is in over his head. And with a dirty senator, a jealous mother, and the mob all drawn into the case, he finds himself playing the most dangerous game of all.

• All My “Harlan Coben” Reviews

Deal Breaker (Myron Bolitar #1) 3Stars

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Title: Deal Breaker
Series: Myron Bolitar #1
Author: Harlan Coben
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 291
Words: 88K

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This is the first book in a series about Myron Bolitar (hence the series name), a man who was an up and coming basketball star, only to have things come to a complete crashing halt when his leg gets shattered in his first game. So he goes to school, becomes a lawyer and then becomes a sports agent. He also apparently did some super-secret black ops stuff for the government with a man who is now one of his best friends and business partner. But this book isn’t about those events at all. They are just alluded to and form a bigger picture of who Myron Bolitar is.

This is a Harlan Coben novel through and through. It has all the elements from the standalones that I’ve read so far (except for the absence of the Witness Protection Program. I just kept waiting for that to pop up and it never did. I was surprised!) but reworked deftly enough that I was never quite sure what the picture was that I was looking at. It was like seeing things when your eyes are dilated. You can generally tell what you are looking at but even the middling details get a bit muddled.

I was generally happy with this read and as long as Coben can keep his stories original with the character of Myron, I’ll happily feed at the trough even if it’s not 5star material.

That does bring me to Myron himself though. He was one of the reasons this didn’t get to the 3.5star rating. He’s a semi-successful business man in his early 30’s I think, but he still lives in his parents basement and participates in their family life, ie, eating breakfast with them, etc. What a loser. I mean, what a complete and utter loser who deserves to have his face ground into the dirt for being such a loser. His parents don’t need his help, he doesn’t make their life better, he complains in his head about both of them, but he won’t move out even though he has the means to. What a scumbag. I hope in one of the later books some mobster shatters his other leg to teach him a fething lesson about growing up. In that same vein, there was also a page where he complains about his parents naming him Myron. What 30 year old is still worrying about his name? I can see a highschooler doing that, but not a grown man. And that is the crux of the matter right there. Coben has written Myron Bolitar as a mix of little boy and grown man and it grates on me, almost like Coben took a cheese grater to my washboard abs.

★★★☆☆

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From Wikipedia and Bookstooge.blog

Click to Open

Investigator and sports agent Myron Bolitar is poised on the edge of the big-time. So is Christian Steele, a rookie quarterback and Myron’s prized client. But when Christian gets a phone call from a former girlfriend, a woman whom everyone, including the police, believes is dead, the deal starts to go sour. Suddenly Myron is plunged into a baffling mystery of sex and blackmail. Trying to unravel the truth about a family’s tragedy, a woman’s secret and a man’s lies, Myron is up against the dark side of his business—where image and talent make you rich, but the truth can get you killed.

In the end, facing down mob bosses, angry dead dads and corrupt sports stars, Myron figures out one of his sports athletes participated in the events that led to a young woman’s death and another of his athletes committed the crime itself.

• All My “Harlan Coben” Reviews

Enemy of the State (Mitch Rapp #16) 3Stars

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Enemy of the State
Series: Mitch Rapp #16
Author: Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 331
Words: 103K

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The US President is tired of the Saudi’s continuing to fund terrorism while taking our money to supposedly fight it themselves. So he sends Mitch Rapp on a mission to start killing the Saudi Royalty as a way to show they can no longer be safe as terrorist proxies. Things go south and Rapp becomes disavowed by the US government. One of his old enemies is co-opted by a corrupt Saudi working for ISIS to hunt Rapp down. And just in case that isn’t enough, Rapp’s new girl wants to start working the logistics side of supporting him in the field.

Kennedy, the Director of the CIA and Rapp’s boss, is barely in this story. I don’t think Mills knows how to truly utilize her and so he just has pushed her to the background. He’s also turned Mitch Rapp into the crazy killing machine everyone thought he was (but wasn’t) when the original author Vince Flynn was writing him. Mills has a much heavier hand and there’s no nuance or suggestion. It’s not a terrible change but it makes Rapp a much less interesting character and limits the scope of what he is capable of.

The action/adventure side of things is definitely all there. It was good. It is what is keeping this series from descending into mediocre territory since Mills just can’t seem to handle Mitch Rapp as a character. I’m going to continue to read these book, I’m going to continue to enjoy them but I am definitely going to continue to complain about Mills’ handling of the characters.

After writing that, I thought about it for a bit. I realized that it isn’t so much that Mills doesn’t “get” Rapp, but that he doesn’t have the same sense of the political that Flynn did. It feels like Mills is colorblind in this regards while Flynn had an eye for various shades of the same color, thus able to subtly bring out aspects you’d never expect. Mills simply can’t do that because of his limitations. Part of me thinks I shouldn’t pick on the poor gimpo, but he is the one who chose to pick up the brush of the master and try to continue his work. I am never going to compare Mills to other books by Mills because I have zero interest in his other works. I will always be comparing him to Flynn, because Flynn started this and created a masterful canvas to work on. Mills just isn’t as good an author as Flynn was. In his defense, he never whines or complains in the forwards or afterwards. He has a cash cow and he’s thankful for every squeezing it gives him.

I just wish he’d make some of that wonderful caramalized onion cheddar instead of the straight up sharp cheddar.

★★★☆☆

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From Kylemills.com/books/enemy-of-the-state/

Click to Open

In the #1 New York Times bestselling series’ latest installment, Mitch Rapp finds himself alone and targeted by a country that is supposed to be one of America’s closest allies.

After 9/11, the US made one of the most secretive and dangerous deals in its history—the evidence against the powerful Saudis who coordinated the attack would be buried. In return, King Faisal would promise to keep the oil flowing and deal with the conspirators in his midst.

When the king’s own nephew is discovered funding ISIS, the president suspects that the Saudis never intended to live up to their agreement. He decides that the royalty needs to be sent a message and that Mitch Rapp is just the man to deliver it. The catch? America can’t be seen moving against an ally. Rapp will be on his own.

Forced to make a decision that will change his life forever, Rapp quits the CIA and assembles a group of independent contractors to help him complete the mission.

They’ve barely begun unraveling the connections between the Saudi government and ISIS when the brilliant new head of the intelligence directorate discovers their efforts. With Rapp getting too close, he threatens to go public with the details of the post-9/11 agreement between the two countries.

Facing an international incident that could end his political career, the President orders America’s intelligence agencies to join the Saudis’ effort to hunt the former CIA man down.

Rapp, supported only by a team of mercenaries with dubious allegiances, finds himself at the center of the most elaborate manhunt in history. It’s only a matter of time before he’s caught or killed. Will it be enough to turn the tables on the Saudis and clear his name?

• All My “Mitch Rapp” Reviews