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A pitch-perfect spy thriller – so well-written, evocative, and gripping that this reader could literally not put it down. (My first by this very prolific author, and I cannot wait to read more).
The epitome of “spook” fiction – with all the undercover terror, subterfuge, violence, duplicity, and psychopathy one would expect – think John Le Carre, but with spies made more homey, emotionally-relatable and reader accessible. For these spies are like us, (sort of),in that they are real people in their sixties and seventies, Americans, retired, living in bucolic northern Maine – and the kind of folks who could very well be your neighbors.
“Five old spies with five lifetimes worth of experience”, – our main protagonists are drawn together by a shared past with the “Agency”, and a now redirected future whose predictability can no longer be assumed.
Maggie Bird, (aka Margaret Porter), our first-person POV narrator, at sixty years old, is the youngest of the group and the true star of this story – an aging, battle-scarred, action-oriented woman, still grieving a past burdened with dark secrets the reader will gradually come to understand. Maggie is the kind of woman – unassuming, straightforward, potentially deadly – you would want to have firmly in your camp, no matter the quandary. Yet Maggie is also fallible, vulnerable, (emotionally and physically) and is clearly suffering deeply from some buried and now re-emerging trauma. It is these characteristics that make the reader fear for her, (fear with her), as she encounters a shadowy enemy from her past and the first (of many) new and horrific murders.
As Maggie becomes a victim of an old plot, resurfaced, it will take the entire team (the help of Maggie’s incredibly competent old-time colleagues, along with a solid effort from the wonderfully earnest acting-Police-Chief Jo Thibodeau) to figure out what is happening and help Maggie emerge unscathed. (Or at least, only somewhat scathed).
As Maggie’s story unfolds across timelines, past and present, and locations spanning Maine, Turkey, Malta, Bangkok and London, a fast-paced and very visceral journey, with terror and twists (and including a heart-tugging love story, ) ensues, laying down a track of pure tension that does not let up until the final dramatic (and very satisfying) ending.
With characters and a literary setup this wonderful, what a joy to see this is to be the first in a series.
A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of the book. All thoughts presented are my own.
