Thank you to Penguin Random House and the First to Read program for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Once again, I unknowingly requested a book that was part of a series I had not read. And once again, I decided to just hope that I would understand what was going on anyways. What drew me to this novel was that its premise reminded me of a really awesome series that I began (but have yet to finish) – the Sigma Force series. I wanted to see how this novel compares to that series… so here is my review:
We have all gotten those scam emails before, the ones from people telling us they care about us and promising a windfall. And we always wonder how can anyone be so naive as to fall for this kind of swindling. But it’s no laughing matter. It is one of the biggest organized crime rackets in the world – and State Department crisis manager Judd Ryker is right in the middle of it. When a young American disappears in London, Ryker is assigned to this case. However, his investigation soon leads him to the heart of a corruption scandal in Nigeria. At the same time, Judd’s CIA agent wife, Jessica, finds herself chasing a Russian master criminal known as the Bear. Neither of them is aware that they are both tugging on different ends of the same string. Jessica has always warned Judd that the world is messy and dangerous. Now, Judd is going to experience it for himself.
So this novel is really fast-paced. There are a lot of characters and there’s a lot going on, so you really need to stay focused. It was quite easy to follow in spite of my complete lack of background on the series. However, I would recommend that interested readers start from the beginning so that they can have a better understanding of the story and characters. While the story was interesting, I found that it was a little too convoluted. There were too many angles and too many things going on that didn’t tie up as well as I wish they would have. Even though the author chose a really interesting topic to base the story on, I felt my interest wane as too many things were thrown in and not enough was explored at times; it just felt like it was missing some depth. I had no problem with pacing or character development. But if I had to compare this to the Sigma Force series, then I would definitely prefer the Sigma Force series. For me, this novel was just okay and I would give it a 2.5/5 rounded to 3 stars.
Happy reading ~
