A brisk globetrotting thriller with abundant tension and a timely premise.
The assassination of the FBI director thrusts a retired super-spy back into service.
President Alexander Hammond has entrusted former Secret Service agent Clayton White with spearheading the fight against the fentanyl epidemic. White first appears at the Mexican border steering the Drug Enforcement Administration to a major confiscation of the drug. But this is just the tip of an ominous criminal iceberg linked to the Red Dragon Triad. Two months later, White’s in Key West with his pregnant fiancee, Veronica Hammond, an archaeologist who just happens to be the president’s daughter, when the specter of the Red Dragon resurfaces, requiring a trip to the Virgin Islands for a secret meeting with FBI director Patrick O’Donnell. Meanwhile, in Macau, Red Dragon leader Geng Peiwu sets an elaborate plan in motion by tricking American CEO Henry Newman into murder and then blackmailing him. Gervais puts even more players into the mix, laying the groundwork for the multiple twists to come. O’Donnell is hosting a party whose guests include his son, Jeremy, a newly minted FBI agent; Jeremy’s fiancee, Daphne; and several others whose true allegiances become clear as the action unfolds. White arrives at O’Donnell’s shortly after a bloodbath that marks the opening move in a complex tale of duplicity and revenge. White’s third thrill ride spans the globe, unfolding in Monaco and Switzerland as well as China and Washington, and benefiting as much from its numerous surprises as from its expertly choreographed action scenes.
A brisk globetrotting thriller with abundant tension and a timely premise.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781662510762
Page Count: 303
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
A fun read. Terrorists make great Clancy fodder.
Evildoers plan attacks from America to India, and Jack Ryan Jr. is a prime target.
In Washington state, a man and his family are murdered, and President Jack Ryan learns it is another Poseidon Spear incident. Three retired members of that counterterrorism group have been killed now, and the U.S. government suspects a mole in its midst. Meanwhile, the Umayyad Revolutionary Council believes it has a holy and wholly anti-American mission. Against this backdrop, Jack Ryan Jr., and his fiancée, Lisanne Robertson, visit Delhi, India, to attend the wedding of Srini Rai, the brilliant surgeon who attached Lisanne’s prosthetic left arm. Lisanne had lost her arm in Tom Clancy Shadow of the Dragon (2020). Jack and Lisanne are both operators working for the Campus, a covert group that executes secret presidential directives. A wedding is a happy occasion, and the engaged American couple intend the trip as a vacation. Jack and Lisanne will attend a sangeet, an elaborate pre-wedding party. But it isn’t long before they survive a suicide bomb attack. As with all Clancy novels, there’s plenty of action on a global scale. In simultaneous strikes, terrorists plan to contaminate America’s Western water supply with radioactive waste from Washington’s Hanford nuclear power plant, blow up a spectacular new bridge in Kashmir, and kill the evil Ryan—or Junior, at least. It will be At-Takwir, the end of days. There is an appealing mix of Indian culture, high-speed action, and the rich lode of details that characterizes the whole series. And in the background lingers the question on several characters’ minds: Have Jack and Lisanne set their own wedding date?
A fun read. Terrorists make great Clancy fodder.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780593718032
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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