The Saudi Strategy, by Ethan Jones

Justin Hall is again the center of attention as a crisis faces the nation of Canada. But most people don't know that there is a crisis. At the present time Justin is working on tracking down the terrorist responsible for attacks that happened in Book #7 of the series. In that book people close to Justin were killed and he wants to track down the terrorist and make sure that they can't hurt anybody else.

The question is this, is he tracking them down because of a sense of revenge or a sense of honor or a sense of duty to rid the world of terrorist? If he is tracking them down from a sense of revenge he needs to be careful. Revenge usually happens with a mind that is not totally focused on the best way to proceed and many operatives die because they get sloppy and make mistakes when acting out of revenge.

Justin and his partner Carrie are going to come under fire from not just one group of operatives but from at least two groups and maybe even more. The issue is that all these people get trigger happy and people other than those they are targeting get killed or wounded.

Can Justin and Carrie find those responsible for the terrorist work in Canada? Can Carrie find what she needs from the Russians in regards to the death / disappearance of her father? Will Justin step over the line and be booted from the Canadian Intelligence service?

Lots of questions, lots of action and as usual we find that Ethan Jones develops a story that is fast paced, heart stopping and also can add new characters to the plots that are happening.

Thanks Ethan for another great novel.

Back Blast, by Mark Greaney

First of all I would like to thank Net Galley and the publisher for making a review copy of this book available to me in exchange for an unbiased review. The book will become available on February 16, 2016. You can pre-order it on Amazon or at iBooks or Barnes and Noble.

Court Gentry is one of the most deadly assets that the CIA has ever had. He has never failed to complete a mission that they have sent him on. Usually he worked from within a team of six operatives. Sometimes they would work with all six, some times with just two, but always with another member of the team.

But there was one time when the Director of the Clandestine services division approached the team and gave the other five men a leave of absence but asked Court to remain behind. He then assigned him to a solo mission. This was unusual but Court knew he could handle things on his own.

He did and the mission was again a success. But soon after a terminate order was put out on Court and the whole agency, plus others, wanted him dead and they went to great lengths to make it happen.

After five years of running from those after him Court decides to go back to America and get to the bottom of the terminate order and set the record straight.

Mark Greaney does an excellent job of weaving a story that is not only plausible but just down right frightening.

Court is good at his job and bodies start to pile up. But Court isn’t the one piling up the bodies as most people thing, OK so he does kill a few, but he only kills those that are not innocent. Those that are following orders he goes well out of his way to keep them alive.

Will Court get to the bottom of the issue? Will he terminate those that need to be terminated and save himself? Will he be brought back into the agency?

Those are questions that will get answered as you read.

Enjoy!

The Last Codex, by Alan Jacobson

First of all I want to thank the publisher and Net Galley for making a review copy of this book available to me for an honest review.

I gave the book only three stars out of five.

I was a bit disappointed with this novel. It rambled on for way to long with too many detours to the real event, which was to find the Lost Codex from the Dead Sea Scrolls that would indicate that the historic Jesus was really a myth, something made up by the countless intellectuals of their day.

A team of operatives from several agencies are tasked with tracking down the Codex as well as tracking down some terrorist that are bent on bringing mayhem to the world. They must traverse through many countries, especially ones that they aren't welcome in because of past incidents. One of those countries being England of all places. Since when does England have a problem with America running operations on their soil, as long as we are partnering for the same thing?

The characters are very well developed and there is a concern about a Muslim Operative among the group that maybe is not all that he seems to be. The Jewish operative is nervous about him and wondering if they have made a mistake in bringing him along. He keeps disappearing and then the team comes under fire. Is this operative orchestrating the attacks on the team to disrupt their work? That is a big question.

The operatives end up splitting up to try and finish the task, but what team would really do that?

Finally, there seems no cognitive resolution to the situation. We are left a bit hanging as to what the final outcome truly is.

I was disappointed in the novel, although I liked the many scenes and situations that the operatives found themselves in. I just couldn't find a good hero or heroine to really latch on to.