"2.5? I skipped probably 25% of the book and then skimmed the end to figure out what happened. The ending didn't really satisfy me. "

"Part international espionage, part man on the run, a novel that suffers from plot holes big enough to drive a Russian tank through.

Based on the description, I was excited to read this one. It felt like a great vacation novel: not too much I needed to think about, an action-driven plot, and a good amount of suspense. It had many of those things, but it suffered from pretty poor execution. The writing was almost always a staccato, machine-gun burst of basic facts. I'll give you an example:

"He resumed walking through the dense woods until he came to a broad mountain stream. The water was flowing quickly, which meant it was safe to drink. He filled his water bottle and took a drink, then filled the bottle up again. Now he had to cross the stream. He looked for rocks to step onto to avoid the water, but there were few. He was forced to wade through the stream, which got his leather boots wet and cold."

It's...fine, but it just felt amateurish compared to some of the more evolved thrillers that I have read, and not something I expected from an author with over 15 published novels to his name.

More challenging were the gaping plot holes throughout the novel. Whether it's unlikely spycraft or inconsistently avoiding detection or unlikely coincidences, there were plenty of eye-roll moments for me during this one. The macro-level plot is not ill-conceived, but the path from start to finish didn't work well. Combining that with some pretty clunky prose, and there was not much great about this novel.

There are far better thrillers out there—pass on this one.

My full review: "