"Have You Seen Her". by Catherine McKenzie

 

Ms. McKenzie signature trade mark has been her success for years and she knows how to exploit it to maximum. In “Have You Seen Her” she keeps us in the middle of the action while taking her protagonist on a journey into her past as everything moves along she intermixes modern twists and provides us with a buffet of events to enjoy. As in her previous novel this latest is no exception to the thrill we experience.

Cassie Peter, the star player, decides to leave life in New York City to return home to Mammoth Lakes to start a new job working Search and Rescue at Yosemite National Park and reconnects with other seasonal workers. Being at the site she once worked at triggers memories of events that have been haunting her for years. Soon she crosses paths with Petal and Jada ......this encounter will turn out to be a summer that Cassie will never forget....

We have a solid narration to guide us even when the story spins around in deferent ways. The twists and turns keep teasing us to follow through, I surely love the suspense. This drama is well said and the characterization is up to par. Nicely done, Ms. McKenzie you penned a stunning thriller.

A large thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC

"A Valuable Asset" by Chloé Archambault

Decoy series book#2

Staring with book #2 is not a problem we have enough background information to blend right in and enjoy this heart-pumping action international intrigue. Now that I read “A Valuable Asset” I may take a step back and read “The Decoy”, book#1.

The story in a few words mixed with my thoughts:

When a mission to exfiltrate a Russian hacker goes awry, Nina's cover is blown, and her father becomes the target of a Novichok attack. With her father poisoned, Nina must uncover who is after her family and why. The stakes are high and while she sets of on a mission she must navigate in a dangerous web of spies, love and assassins. Along the way we are on the edge of our seat until the very end.

No doubt, I was hooked from the opening words after all most of this thriller is set in my home town of Montréal and following Nina through the streets was a cakewalk. We find a lot of French Canadian and “Franglais” (a mixture of French and English in the same sentence) in the narration and dialogue giving us a pervading tone and mood to experience, the author does this with grace. The story flows well, easy to follow and is very fast paced with many twist and turns along the way. If you like spy thriller, with double agent, Russian spies, lots of entertaining action, some assassins and a dash of romance to soften everything you will find all of this in the riveting plot penned by Ms. Archambault.

Well said, well done.

My thanks to The Book Whisperer and Netgalley for this ARC

"The Bucharest Legacy", by William Maz

The Rise of the Oligarchs

This suspenseful sequel to “The Bucharest Dossier” is an engaging and exciting cold-war thriller on its own, no need to read the previous book in order to enjoy this one. The story sheds light on the unbelievable corruption of both the West and the East. The narrative over 400 pages covers basically the Bucharest of the 1993 and takes place three years after the revolution against the Communist regime.

The protagonist is Romanian born Bill Hefflin who finds himself entangled with the CIA handling a mysterious Russian asset, Boris, a double agent maybe even a triple agent...how convoluted can this become. Wait to see what Mr. Maz has in mind in his book. When a rumor flies that he is the top Russian mole in the CIA, he definitely knows he is being set up and sets out to get to the bottom of things. After ensuring that his son and wife’s are safe, he sets off to Romania where immediately things go haywire. And the bodies start to mount...while the crooks get richer and half the population are starving.

You need to stay alert reading this book so much goes on back and forth and many characters are added to the action and the suspense gets even more intense. Hefflin and his wife Catherine, who plays a huge role, are well-drawn and complex characters. As for Boris, he is a shadow hanging over the spy hunts. I may have found the story to be way longer than it should have been with the repetition of information we have already been told but delving deeper into the gripping action scenes I discovered how crafty Mr. Maz’s writing style is. His research, techniques and action sequences only can keep us on the edge of our seats till the very end. The language is easy and engaging what is not to like. Well said, well-done

My thanks to Oceanview Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC