Tag: Thriller

Hideout by Jack Heath

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Thriller14 Comments

Hideout Cover

Publisher: Allen & Unwin (Trade Paperback – 1 December 2020)

Series: Timothy Blake – Book Three

Length: 406 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

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Australian bestselling author Jack Heath brings back his cannibalistic protagonist, Timothy Blake, for another gruesome adventure in Hideout.

Timothy Blake, occasional FBI consultant and full-time murderous cannibal, is on the run, convinced that his former employers are close to capturing him for his unfortunate habit.  With nothing to lose, Blake decides to take out one final target and travels to a house in rural Texas where Fred, the ringleader of a group of dark web torture video producers, lives.  However, his plan to kill and consume Fred quickly goes out the window when he finds out that this target is not alone.

Fred has gathered five of his cohorts, known as the Guards, each of whom makes a living off torturing, extorting and killing people on the dark web.  Pretending to be an online associate of the Guards who is in trouble, Blake manages to con his way into the house, convincing them that he is a just as twisted as they are.  His subsequent plan to pick off his new companions one by one seems like a winner, until one of the Guard turns up dead by someone else’s hands.

It soon becomes apparent to Blake that another killer is stalking his new hideout, one who is determined to keep their secrets no matter what.  With his cover likely to be blown at any second and his ravenous hunger for human flesh threatening to overwhelm him, Blake needs to find a way to survive and overwhelm his companions.  However, the discovery of a group of desperate people chained up in the building behind the house complicates everything, especially when the Guards’ latest victim arrives.  Can Blake take out this group of psychopaths before he is picked off by another killer, or has this cannibal finally met his match?

Hideout is a fun and compelling novel from Canberran author Jack Heath, who has once again come up with an exciting adventure for his distinctive protagonist.  Heath is a well-established author who primarily made a name for himself with young adult and children’s thriller fiction, such as his Six of Hearts, The Liars, The Danger and The Scream series.  However, Heath has also branched off into adult thrillers with his Timothy Blake novels.  The Timothy Blake series started in 2018 with the first entry, Hangman, and it follows its dysfunctional cannibal protagonist as he investigates a series of different and thrilling mysteries.  Hideout is the third entry in this series and is set shortly after the events of the second novel, Hunter (which was also released under the title Just One Bite).  This is actually first Jack Heath novel that I have read, and while I was deeply intrigued by the previous Timothy Blake books, I did not get a chance to grab a copy.  However, I really enjoyed Hideout and I am definitely going to go out of my way to obtain any additional novels Heath writes in the future.

This third Timothy Blake book proved to be quite an impressive and compelling read, as the protagonist finds himself trapped with six other psychopaths, each of whom torture and kill people online for a living.  This proves to be quite an intriguing scenario, as this bold protagonist bluffs his way into the house and plots various ways to kill them.  However, the whole scenario inevitably gets out of hand, and Blake finds himself having to investigate the murder of one of the killers he is trapped with.  This results in an excellent story and I loved the blend of mystery, great interactions, and the character’s attempts to keep his cover, especially as Heath also throws in a little commentary about current society (some of which is exceedingly relevant, particularly this week).  I really liked where the author took his awesome story, and all the various twists, revelations and surprising actions made for quite a compelling and thrilling read.  I especially loved all the excellent foreshadowing that the author utilised, as nearly every stray thought or memory from the protagonist came into play somewhere later in the book.  The story is extremely fast paced, and readers should be able to power through it in short order, especially once they get wrapped up in the captivating narrative.  I also appreciated how easy it was for those people unfamiliar with the previous Timothy Blake novels to read Hideout, as Heath has made it quite accessible, with all the key elements from the previous books explained in sufficient detail.  Naturally, as this is a novel about a cannibal living undercover with dark web torturers, this is a particularly dark book and people who have issues with torture, gruesome killings and cannibalism might want to avoid it.  Overall, this was an amazing narrative, and I had a fantastic and exhilarating time getting through it.

I quite enjoyed the damaged and intriguing protagonist that was Timothy Blake, and it was rather fun following the adventures of a cannibal.  While there are some obvious parallels to Dexter in this character as a killer who target criminals, I felt that Blake was distinctive enough in his own right and he ended up being an interesting character to set a book around.  I really enjoyed seeing the entire narrative unfold from his perspective as the character adds some intriguing elements to the story.  There is something desperate and feral in this character that translates off the page, and he is haunted by some of the events from the previous novels, especially as he believes that his freedom or life is nearly over.  While the origins of his cannibalistic tendencies are not really covered in Hideout (I assume that they are detailed in prior books), you do get an idea of this character’s troubled past and how he helped as an FBI consultant.  Despite being a killer and unrepentant flesh eater, Blake is constantly trying to be a good person, and it was fascinating to see him try to save certain lives while plotting the deaths of the various members of the Guards.  Blake also proves to be a canny investigator and trickster even though his formal education is rather lacking, managing to fool the people he lives with while also solving the curious mysteries that Heath came up with.  I loved the cannibalistic side of the protagonist and it was quite amusing to see him considering the various people and corpses he encounters, wondering about how much meat he could get off them and how likely he could get away with eating.  This hunger proves to be an interesting driving force for Blake throughout the book, especially as, to maintain his cover, he has to consume a vegetarian diet, which messes with his mind a little.  I also enjoyed the way in which Heath is clearly not amazingly attached to his protagonist, as Blake goes through some stuff which changes him in some substantial ways.  I ended up really liking this complex and enjoyable character and I look forward to seeing what his future adventures entail, especially as Heath sets up an interesting potential story arc for the next book.

Heath has also filled up Hideout with some other compelling characters who stay on the property with Blake for most of the book.  The most prominent of these are the members of the Guards, the six psychopaths who video themselves torturing people to make money.  While on the surface all of these characters are despicable, Heath spends time examining each of their personalities and histories, fleshing them out and showing that their various motivations are a lot more complex than initially believed.  This helps to create a richer story, especially as each of the characters have their own unique secrets that come into play throughout the narrative and ensure a much more complex mystery for Blake to solve, as well as adding in some compelling connections to the protagonist.  There is also a further group of characters on the property who are a major part of the book’s plot.  Like the members of the Guards, there is more to these characters than initially appears, and their plight is a rather intriguing ethical inclusion to the story.  One of these characters is featured quite significantly throughout the book due to their prior connections to Blake, and it was fascinating to see the massively negative impacts of Blake’s interactions with them.  All of this results in quite a character-rich narrative, and I quite enjoyed seeing how some of the arcs played out and how the protagonist interacted with them.

Hideout by Australian author Jack Heath ended up being a fun and compelling novel, and I had an amazing time reading it.  Heath makes excellent use of his unique protagonist, inventive plot scenario and fast-paced story to create an awesome thriller that readers can easily enjoy and get through quickly.  While a bit gruesome in places, this is an undoubtedly entertaining thriller that readers are going to have fun getting through.  I look forward to seeing how the Timothy Blake series continues in the future, and the next book should be a fantastic and exhilarating ride.

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Cyber Shogun Revolution by Peter Tieryas

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Alternate Timeline, Audiobook, Science Fiction, Thriller3 Comments

Cyber Shogun Revolution

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio (Audiobook – 3 March 2020)

Series: United States of Japan – Book Three

Length: 10 hours and 55 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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If you like the sound of a gritty spy thriller set in an alternate version of America filled with destructive mechas, then you really need to check out Cyber Shogun Revolution, the third novel in Peter Tieryas’s outstanding United States of Japan series.

The United States of Japan novels are a fun and inventive series that is routinely described as a combination between The Man in the High Castle and Pacific Rim.  This series is set in an alternate history in which the United States lost World War II after Japan invented mechas to defeat the Allies.  Following the end of the war, the United States was split between the Japanese Empire and the Nazis, who subsequently engaged in an extended and brutal Cold War against each other.  This latest novel is set in 2020 and features an intense and thrilling new tale that is separate from the stories told in the previous two entries in the series.

Following the end of the latest war against the Nazis, the United States of Japan is facing a crisis as their corrupt governor appears to be a Nazi sympathiser, secretly doing their enemy’s bidding.  Seeking justice after a brutal Nazi attack in Kansas, mecha pilot Reiko Morikawa joins a secret organisation of high-ranking soldiers, mecha pilots and politicians, known as The Sons of War, who plot to assassinate the governor and replace him with one of their own.  While their initial plan to kill the governor goes awry, their target is still killed thanks to the intervention of the mysterious assassin and feared Nazi slayer, Bloody Mary.

However, Bloody Mary has a whole different agenda and swiftly turns against The Sons of War, assassinating key members of the organisation in a brutal strike that leaves Reiko as the only survivor.  Determined to find out why Bloody Mary betrayed them, Reiko teams up with Bishop Wakan, an agent of Japan’s secret police, the Tokko, to hunt her down and stop her plot.  Tracing a shipment of black market mecha parts to Nazi America, Reiko and Bishop travel into enemy territory to find answers and soon find themselves in the midst of a massive conspiracy.  Bloody Mary has plans to change the entire United States of Japan forever, and she does not care who dies to achieve her goal.  Can Reiko and Bishop stop her before it is too late, or will the entire world feel Bloody Mary’s wrath?

Cyber Shogun Revolution is an exciting and compelling new novel from Tieryas, which serves as the third entry in the United States of Japan series.  I have a lot of love for this series after powering through the second novel, Mecha Samurai Empire, when it came out a couple of years ago.  I have been meaning to check out this latest entry for some time now, and I was glad I was able to get around to it before the end of 2020.  This latest book was really cool, and I loved the bold new story that Tieryas was able to come up with, especially as he once again makes excellent use of his unique and captivating alternate world.

This latest entry in the United States of Japan series proved to be a fun and fast-paced novel, which sees two intense protagonists forced to investigate a lethal conspiracy in an inventive and clever setting.  Told from the alternating perspectives of its two main characters, Reiko and Bishop, this story gets off the ground quick and does not slow down one bit throughout the entire book as the protagonists quickly find themselves in the midst of all manner of intrigue and suspense.  This was a deeply exciting novel, and I liked how the author changes focus from the previous novel, writing Cyber Shogun Revolution as more of a spy thriller with alternate history and science fiction elements.  I really liked the impressive pace of this novel and I was quickly drawn in by the compelling and complex thriller that Tieryas weaves for the reader, especially as it makes great use of its setting and unique world elements to tell the entire story.  The author throws in a few good twists and turns throughout the narrative, and I quite enjoyed seeing the story unfold in all its action-packed glory.  Readers do not need to have any pre-knowledge of the United States of Japan series to enjoy this book as the narrative is mostly unrelated to the events of the previous novels, although fans of the series will no doubt enjoy seeing the various changes to the universe.  Overall, Cyber Shogun Revolution had a fantastic and exhilarating story that is guaranteed to keep the reader wildly entertained throughout the entire run of the book.

A major highlight of Cyber Shogun Revolution, and indeed the entire United States of Japan series, is the inventive and unique alternate version of the world that the author has created.  The Japanese-controlled America featured within this series is an intriguing blend of Western and Japanese culture, mixed with advanced technology and an entirely new history.  I really enjoyed seeing all the clever combinations of culture that the author featured throughout his story, and there are quite a few amusing references and ideas featured throughout.  There is a particular focus on cuisine, and Tieryas once again enthrals the reader with descriptions of intense and interesting-sounding fusion foods, many of which I would love to try out.  These descriptions of the United States of Japan are really cool, and it proves to be a rich setting for the narrative to run through, especially as it is not the shiny utopia that it appears on the surface.  The country is instead a dangerous and oppressive regime ruled over by fanatical thought police, where even a momentary slipup is enough to condemn you to a horrible fate.  Tieryas spends time really highlighting this darker side of his universe in Cyber Shogun Revolution and it ends up become a major part of the plot.  The author also takes the reader on a brief tour of Nazi-occupied America, which proves to be a particularly horrible experience (strangely enough, the Nazis are just as bad, if not worse, in this reality), mainly due to the Nazis’ reliance on bioengineering rather than machines, which results in a number of disturbing and disgusting creatures, such as their bimorphs (giant organic mechas).  The comparisons between the Japanese and Nazi controlled parts of America are really fascinating, and I am really glad the author based a bit of the story there.  Needless to say, I absolutely loved the setting for Cyber Shogun Revolution, especially as it helped create a clever and complex narrative, and I cannot wait to revisit it in some of Tieryas’s future novels.

Now there is no way that I can talk about Cyber Shogun Revolution without mentioning the mechas, the giant and powerful human-controlled battle machines which won the war for the Japanese.  Mechas are a distinctive and exciting pop culture creation, especially in anime, and Tieryas uses them to great effect throughout the entire book.  While this latest entry in the series has a definite focus on conspiracies and espionage, Tieryas still slips in several mecha fights and combat scenes.  Indeed, the entire last third of the novel sees the protagonists go up against a series of different and powerful mechas in some intense and epic sequences.  The author has clearly had some creative fun in this book as Cyber Shogun Revolution features a raft of new mechas, each with some unique or advanced piece of technology that gives them an edge over their opponents, including mechas with magnet guns, a mammoth-shaped mecha with a chainsaw trunk, and a mecha that has super speed.  This naturally leads to some fantastic and distinctive sequences, as the protagonists need to find a way to defeat the varied opponents around them.  I particularly enjoyed one sequence that saw one of the characters fighting against a rival mecha, while the other protagonist assists from the outside while riding a jetpack.  Needless to say, if you love mecha combat and fantastic battle scenes (who doesn’t?) then you are going to have a lot of fun with Cyber Shogun Revolution.

In order to tell this fantastic novel, Tieryas utilises two excellent, if damaged, point-of-view protagonists in the duo of mecha pilot Reiko Morikawa and secret agent Bishop Wakan.  After both have separate run-ins with Bloody Mary in which they are the only survivor, the two team up in order to get to the bottom of why she betrayed their nation and what her end goal really is.  Both characters are extremely interesting, mainly because they both have complex and tragic pasts which drive them towards their goals.  Tieryas does an amazing job diving down into these characters’ inner psyches, creating some truly complex characters with major flaws who the reader are inexorably drawn to.  In addition, both characters also have some intense history with Bloody Mary and some of her co-conspirators, resulting in some emotionally charged moments throughout the novel.  These two characters are also a little anti-authoritarian, having seen the dark side of their nation firsthand, which alters the way that they deal with events, and also ensures that they are a little more susceptible to their enemy’s manipulation.  I really enjoyed these amazing characters and I thought that they made for a great duo of central protagonists.

While I had initially planned to grab a paperback version of this book, I ended up splashing out and getting Cyber Shogun Revolution’s audiobook format.  This audiobook has a relatively quick runtime of just under 11 hours and was narrated by the talented Emily Woo Zeller.  Zeller, who I recently enjoyed in the Star Wars: Doctor Aphra audio drama, did an exceptional job narrating Cyber Shogun Revolution and I had an outstanding time listening to it.  Zeller came up with some fantastic and distinctive voices for the various characters featured within this novel, and the entire audiobook quickly flew by thanks to her fast-paced narration.  I also loved having the cool mecha fights being narrated to me, as hearing the action being described made it pop a lot more for me than simply reading it on a page.  Because of this, Cyber Shogun Revolution comes highly recommended in its audiobook format, and I really enjoyed hearing all the awesome action and excitement contained within this amazing novel.

Cyber Shogun Revolution is an epic and captivating novel from the amazing Peter Tieryas that serves as the third entry in his fantastic United States of Japan series.  Containing an intense story laden with action, intrigue, and treachery, all set with a clever alternate version of America, Cyber Shogun Revolution is a ball of excitement that readers will have an incredible time reading.  An excellent and fun read to check out, I look forward to exploring more of Tieryas’s outrageous universe in the future.

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Hollow Empire by Sam Hawke

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Fantasy, Five-Star Books, LGBT+4 Comments

Hollow Empire Cover 2

Publisher: Bantam Press (Trade Paperback – 1 December 2020)

Series: Poison War – Book Two

Length: 560 pages

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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After a two-year wait, we finally get to see the epic sequel to Australian author Sam Hawke’s impressive debut novel, City of Lies, with her blockbuster new novel, Hollow Empire.

Two years after the siege of the city of Silasta, where the oppressed Darfri minority were manipulated into attacking the capital by an unknown outside force, the city has started to recover.  While the city focuses on rebuilding and reconciliation with their former besiegers, the poison-eating siblings Jovana and Kalina Oromani, secret protectors of the Chancellor, continue their efforts to work out who was truly behind the attack on their city.  However, to their frustration, no-one else in the city shares their concerns; instead they have grown complacent with the returned peace.

But no peace lasts forever, especially as Silastra celebrates the karodee, a grand festival, to which representatives of all the nations surrounding the city state have been invited.  While the focus is on peace and forging ties between nations, the siblings begin to suspect that their unknown enemy is using it as an opportunity to launch a new attack against Silastra.  In order to determine what is happening, Jovana attempts to hunt down a dangerous and deadly killer that only he seems to have noticed, while Kalina navigates the treacherous world of politics and diplomacy as she works to determine which of their neighbours may have been involved in the prior attack on their city.

Working together with the Chancellor Tain and the Darfri mystic Hadrea, the Oromani siblings get closer to finding some of the answers that they desire.  However, both siblings find themselves under attack from all sides as their opponents attempt not only to kill them but to discredit their entire family.  Determined to protect Silasta no matter what, Jovana and Kalina will risk everything to find out the truth, even if the answers are too much for either of them to bear.

Hollow Empire was another awesome novel from fellow Canberran Sam Hawke, which serves as the compelling and enjoyable second entry in her Poison War series, which follows on from her 2018 debut, City of Lies.  I am a big fan of Hawke’s first novel; not only was it one of my favourite books of 2018 but it is also one of my top debuts of all time.  As a result, I have been looking forward to seeing how the story continues for some time now and I was incredibly happy to receive my copy of Hollow Empire several weeks ago.  The wait was definitely worth it, as Hawke has come up with another impressive and clever novel that not only serves as an excellent sequel to City of Lies but which takes the reader on an intrigue laden journey into the heart of an exciting fantasy city filled with great characters.

Hawke has come up with an excellent narrative for this latest novel which takes the protagonists on a wild journey throughout their city and beyond as they attempt to uncover a dangerous conspiracy threatening to destroy everything they love.  Told from alternating perspectives of the two main characters, Jovana and Kalina, Hollow Empire’s story was a clever and exciting thrill-ride of intrigue, lies, politics, crime and treachery, as the protagonists attempt to find out who is targeting them and plotting to destroy their city.  This proved to be a fun and captivating narrative, and I liked how Hollow Empire felt a lot more like a fantasy thriller than the first book, which focused a bit more on the siege of the city.  The protagonists must dig through quite a few layers of lies, hidden history and alternate suspects to find out what is happening in Silasta, and while there was a little less focus on the fun poison aspects that made the first novel such a treat, I really enjoyed how the story unfolded.  Hawke comes up with several great twists and reveals throughout the book, some of which really surprised me, although I was able to guess a couple of key ones.  I did think that the eventual reveal of the ultimate villain of the story was a tad rushed, but it resulted in an intense and fast-paced conclusion to the novel which also opens some intriguing avenues for any future entries in this series.  Readers may benefit from rereading City of Lies in advance of Hollow Empire, especially as there has been a bit of gap between the first and second novels’ releases.  However, for those wanting to jump right in, Hawke did include a fun recap at the start of the book, which sees the protagonists watching a theatrical recreation of the events of City of Lies.  Not only is this a rather entertaining inclusion (mainly due to how Jovana is portrayed) but it also serves as a good summary of some of the book’s key events, and readers should be able to follow through this second book without any trouble, even if they have not had a chance to read City of Lies.  Overall, this was an epic and impressive story, and I really enjoyed seeing how the Poison Wars continued in Hollow Empire.

I really enjoyed some of the cool writing elements that Hawke featured in Hollow Empire which added a lot to my overall enjoyment of the book and its great story.  The most noticeable of this is the use of the split perspectives, with the main protagonists, Jovana and Kalina, each getting alternating chapters shown from their point of view.  These split chapters worked extremely well in City of Lies, and I am really glad that Hawke decided to use them once again in her second book.  While the primary use of these alternate chapters was to show the different angles of investigation that the siblings were following, it does result in some additional benefits to the narrative.  I particularly liked the way in which the author uses the split perspectives to create tension and suspense throughout the novel, such as by one protagonist lacking information that the other character (and the reader) has knowledge of, or by leaving one protagonist’s fate uncertain.  It was also interesting to see the different opinions that the protagonists had on various characters and the specific relationships and friendships that they formed.  I also liked the way in which Hawke placed some intriguing in-universe poison proofing notes before each chapter, which recounted various poisonings that Oromani family has prevented or investigated over the years.  These notes were quite fun to check out and it really helped to highlight the importance the main characters place on protecting the Chancellor and their city from poison attacks.  These clever elements enhanced an already compelling narrative, and I imagine that Hawke will continue to utilise them in some of her future novels.

One of the major highlights of this book was the return to the author’s great fantasy setting that is the city of Silasta and its surrounding countryside.  Silasta is an extremely woke city full of artists, inventors and scholars who believe in equality between genders and acceptance of all sexualities and gender identities (for example, Hawke introduces a non-binary character in Hollow Empire).  While this was a fun city to explore in the first novel, especially as it was besieged for most of the book, I quite like how the author has altered the setting for Hollow Empire.  There is a significant focus on how Silasta has changed since the ending of the siege two years previously, especially on the attempted reconciliation efforts between the somewhat elitist citizens of Silasta and the Darfri, who were previously treated as second-class citizens doing the menial jobs.  While there have been changes to this relationship since the end of the first book, much is still the same and the difficulties in reconciling these two groups becomes a major and intriguing plot point within Hollow Empire.  Hawke also adds in an intriguing crime element to the novel, as several criminal gangs have used the chaos following the siege to build power within the city, peddling new drugs to the populace.  These new elements make for a different city than what the reader has previously seen, and I really liked how Hawke explored the negative elements of the aftermath of the first book and implemented them in Hollow Empire’s narrative, creating a fantastic and intriguing story.

In addition to focusing on the changes to the main city setting, I also really enjoyed the way in which Hawke decided to expand out her fantasy world.  This is mainly done by introducing emissaries from several of the nation’s neighbouring Silasta and bringing them to the city, resulting in the protagonists learning more about their respective histories and cultures, especially as they are convinced that one of them is responsible for the attack against them.  The story also explores the history of Silasta itself, with several storylines exploring how the city came into existence and its hidden past.  The author also worked to expand the magical system present within her universe by examining the spirit magic that was introduced in City of Lies and exploring more of its rules and limitations.  This results in several intriguing scenes, especially when one of the major characters, Hadrea, finds new ways to manipulate her magic.  In addition, some new forms of magic are introduced within the book.  These new magics have an origin in some of the new realms that are further explored in Hollow Empire and included an interesting and deadly form of witchcraft that differs wildly from the magical abilities that the characters utilised in the first book.  Not only are these new and inventive world-building elements quite fun to explore, but their inclusion becomes a key inclusion to the narrative.  All of this results in an enjoyable expanded universe, and it looks like Hawke has plans to introduce further lands and histories in the next Poison Wars book.

Another great part of Hollow Empire is the complexity of the characters, all of whom have evolved in some distinctive and compelling manner since the first novel.  As mentioned above, the main protagonists are the Oromani siblings, Jovana and Kalina, who serve as the book’s point-of-view characters.  Jovana is the Chancellor’s poison proofer, his secretive bodyguard who prepares his food and ensures that everything he eats is poison-free.  However, since the events of City of Lies, Jovan has become a lot more well-known throughout the city due to the role he played during the siege.  This requires him to adjust his role in society, especially as many people are now questioning how he and his family gained such prominence.  Jovan is also a lot more cautious when it comes to the Chancellor’s security after several near misses in the first novel, so that he appears almost paranoid at points throughout Hollow Empire.  This paranoia serves him well as he is forced to fight against an assassin who is using some clever means to attack his family and allies.  Jovan has also entered into a mentoring role within this book as he takes his young niece, Dija, as his new apprentice, teaching her the ways of proofing and ensuring that she has an immunity to toxins by poisoning her himself, in a similar way to how his uncle raised and taught him.  All of these add some intriguing new dynamics to Jovan’s character, and I really enjoyed seeing how he has changed since the first book.  Kalina also proves to be an excellent character throughout Hollow Empire, and I quite enjoyed reading her chapters.  Like her brother, Kalina has become a much more public figure in Silasta, although she is seen more as a hero than a suspicious poisoner like her brother.  Kalina’s chapters mainly focus on her attempts at finding out the truth through diplomacy as she interacts with the foreign delegations visiting the city.  Her investigations are just as dangerous as Jovan’s, and I really enjoyed seeing how her distinctive narrative unfolded, as well as how her character has also evolved, including with a fantastic new romance.  Both protagonists serve as excellent centres for the story and I look forward to seeing how they progress in later books in the series.

Hollow Empire also boasts a raft of fantastic side characters, many of whom have some exceptional arcs throughout the book.  The main two supporting characters are probably Chancellor Tain and Hadrea, both of whom were significant figures in City of Lies.  Like the main protagonists, Tain has also changed a lot since City of Lies, where he was the young and bold ruler thrust into a chaotic position.  Now he is a much more measured and cautious man, especially after narrowly avoiding death by poisoning in the first novel.  Tain continues to be the focus of the protagonist’s advice and protection throughout the novel, and the friendship he has with Jovana and Kalina becomes a major part of the book’s plot, resulting in some dramatic and powerful moments.  Hadrea, the young Speaker whose spirit magic saved the city in the first novel, also gets a lot of focus throughout Hollow Empire and is quite a major character.  In addition to being Jovan’s love interest, Hadrea also serves as the protagonist’s magic expert as they attempt to understand some of the mystical elements attacking them.  Hadrea’s magical power ends up becoming a major story element of Hollow Empire as she attempts to find new ways to use her magic while also chafing under the instruction of her superiors.  It looks like Hawke has some major plans for Hadrea in the future books, and I am curious to see what happens to her next.  These characters, and more, end up adding a lot to the story, and I quite enjoyed the way that Hawke portrayed them.

Hollow Empire by Sam Hawke was an impressive and deeply enjoyable novel that serves as an excellent sequel to City of Lies.  Featuring a thrilling and clever main narrative, great characters and an inventive, if damaged, fantasy setting, Hollow Empire was an epic read from start to finish that proves exceedingly hard to put down.  I had a wonderful time reading Hollow Empire and it ended up being one of my favourite books of 2020.  A highly recommended read, I cannot wait to see how the series continues in the future.

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Ink by Jonathan Maberry

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Horror, LGBT+, Thriller23 Comments

Ink Cover

Publisher: Macmillan Audio (Audiobook – 17 November 2020)

Series: Standalone/Pine Deep series

Length: 15 hours and 9 minutes

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

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Prepare to journey back to the weirdly dangerous town of Pine Deep as one of my favourite authors, Jonathan Maberry, presents his latest novel, Ink, an intriguing and clever horror thriller that dives down into the world of memories and tattoos.

Pine Deep, Pennsylvania is a town long-steeped in blood and death.  After barely surviving the terrible events of 15 years ago, now known by the locals as The Trouble, the town has slowly recovered, with fresh businesses and people bringing in new life.  However, no one is ever truly safe in Pine Deep, especially with a malicious predator haunting the streets, one with very particular appetites.

Monk Addison is man who has experienced many weird and horrifying things in his life, but what he is about to encounter in Pine Deep will shake him to his core.  A bounty hunter who has sought redemption in life by covering his body with tattoos depicting the faces of murder victims, Monk has recently moved to Pine Deep to be closer to his friend and tattoo-artist Patty Cakes, but what he arrives he finds Patty in a state of shock.  An important tattoo on Patty’s hand has started to disappear, and as it fades, so do the memories associated with it until Patty can no longer remember anything about, not even the precious person who inspired it.

As Monk desperately tries to understand what is happening to his friend, a pattern begins to emerge.  Several people within Pine Deep are experiencing losses of traumatic or significant memories, and in every case tattoos related to these events have also disappeared.  Worse, in some cases new tattoos are appearing on people, forcing them to do terrible deeds.  Working with Pine Deep’s chief of police, Malcolm Crow, and his adopted son, Mike Sweeney, Monk, Patty and other impacted residents of Pine Deep attempt to discover who or what is behind these stolen memories.  But can they find who is responsible before their memories fade, or will this predator continue to feast on the very thing that makes them human?  The Lord of the Flies is hungry, and his reign of terror has only just begun!

Over the last couple of years, I have become a major fan of Jonathan Maberry’s writings, and I only just recently finished reading all 10 Joe Ledger novels, as well as the first Rogue Team International book, Rage, so I was very excited to get my next fix of Maberry excitement with Ink.  Ink was one of my most anticipated novels for the second half of 2020, and it really did not disappoint in any way, as Maberry has produced an intense and captivating horror novel that proved to be both extremely exciting and deeply terrifying.

Ink is an outstanding and impressive book that contains one heck of a story that sees several remarkable characters attempt to deal with a weird and powerfully scary supernatural threat that is attempting to destroy what is most precious to them.  Maberry has crafted together a fantastic narrative for this book that is equal parts clever, compelling and scary, and which dives down deep into the psyche of several complex individuals.  The author utilises his trademark style to produce a wide-ranging, multi-character story that shows the full impact of the antagonist’s dark machinations, and the slow hunt of the protagonists to comprehend what is happening to them, and their subsequent attempts to combat the threat.  While I did think that the story was a little slow at the start, once it gets going the reader has a hard time putting it down, as they become obsessed with seeing the full extent of the horror, as well as becoming connected to the characters featured within.  While Ink contains a lot less action than a typical Maberry novel, this is an extremely exciting and fast-paced read, with the thrilling game of cat and mouse between the villain and his victims proving to be quite intense.  Readers should be warned that this is an extremely adult read, containing some fairly graphic sequences of violence, torture, mental manipulation and sexual content, which may not be for everyone.  Overall though, this is an exceptional read, and I really loved getting to the end of this enthralling and excellent narrative.

While Ink is ostensibly a standalone novel, in many ways it is a sequel to Maberry’s debut series, the Pine Deep trilogy, while also being set in the same universe as several of his other books, namely the Joe Ledger novels.  The entirety of Ink is set in the town of Pine Deep, which was the titular setting of the original trilogy.  As a result, several characters from these books appear throughout the course of the novel and there are a lot of mentions of the events of the Pine Deep trilogy, some of which play into the plot.  While you potentially could get a little more out of Ink by reading the Pine Deep novels first, I would say that you really do not need any prior knowledge of these books to enjoy Maberry’s latest novel.  Like always, Maberry’s writing is very inclusive, providing the reader with relevant information about the events that occurred in these previous novels.  As a result, the reader gets a decent summary of what occurred in the Pine Deep trilogy and how it relates to Ink.  This allows readers unfamiliar with the Pine Deep books to enjoy Ink without any issues, and this might even be a good Maberry starter novel for anyone who has been interested in reading some of his books.  On the other hand, those fans of Maberry who are familiar with this prior trilogy will no doubt really enjoy the return to this iconic setting and will have an amazing time seeing what has happened in the 15 years following the end of Bad Moon Rising (the third and final book in the Pine Deep trilogy).  The summaries of the Pine Deep novels contained within Ink are rather easy to get through and Maberry works them into the story extremely well, so those people familiar with these prior works should be able to read them without getting bored of a forced recap, and this is book that any horror or thriller fan can easily enjoy.

At the heart of Ink are the excellent main point-of-view characters that Maberry utilises to tell his complex tale.  There are several major characters featured throughout the book, including several original characters created specifically for Ink.  The most notable of these is Monk Addison, the relentless and scary former soldier who is desperately seeking redemption after a long and bloody life.  Monk turned out to be an amazing central character for this book and I loved the way that Maberry slowly revealed his past in order to show just how special he his.  Monk goes through a fair bit of development in this novel, and I found myself getting quite attached to him as the story progressed.  In addition to Monk, Ink also has a particular focus on Patty Cakes, Monk’s tattoo artist friend whose memories are impacted by the book’s antagonist.  Patty is a deeply tragic and magical character who has gone through a lot in her life and who now finds herself being attacked in a much more personal and devastating way.  Seeing Patty being overwhelmed by the loss of her memories is really disturbing and heartbreaking and you cannot help but feel her loss deep in your soul, which is a testament to Maberry’s excellent writing.  Patty is another character who you grow to care for as the story unfolds and the constant danger she is put into, both mentally and physically, keeps the reader on edge.  The other two original major characters I need to highlight are Dianna and Gayle.  Dianna is a medium who also has her memories stolen by Ink’s antagonist, while Gayle is someone who builds a connection to Dianna, who is then impacted by Gayle’s lost memories in a different way.  I liked the way that Dianna and Gayle were worked into the story, and they helped to provide a new angle to the narrative.  Watching them team up with Patty added some enjoyable female empowerment elements to the novel, and there is a touching LGBT romance between Dianne and Gayle that I thought Maberry handled well, even if it was a tad explicit.

In addition to these new characters, Maberry also makes use of the protagonists from the Pine Deep novels who return as major characters in Ink.  This includes major characters Malcolm Crow, Mike Sweeney, Val Guthrie and Jonatha Corbiel (now Jonatha Newton).  While Val and Jonatha have mostly smaller roles in this book, Malcolm and Mike are major point-of-view characters, performing their own investigation of the latest batch of weird events occurring around Pine Deep.  Both proved to be exceptional additions to the cast, as not only are they complex characters (especially after the events of the Pine Deep trilogy), but they also add some distinctive viewpoints into the investigate parts of the book.  Maberry does a fantastic job introducing these characters to new readers, while those who have read the Pine Deep books will deeply appreciate seeing what has happened to them since the events of this initial trilogy.  While I am sure that many of Maberry’s readers would have hoped for happy lives for Malcolm, Mike and Val after all they have been through, all three characters have experienced additional difficulties and tragedies in the last 15 years.  These additional life events, as well as their traumas from the Pine Deep books, are expertly incorporated into their characterisation for Ink, and it proved deeply compelling to see their arcs unfold.  I personally enjoyed seeing the new protagonists’ reactions when encountering Malcolm and Mike, and there are a lot of depictions about realising how dark, dangerous and damaged both of them are.  Some of these new characters are also in for a hair-raising surprise when it comes to Mike, and it was interesting to see how that certain aspect of Mike’s character has evolved since his last book.  All of the characters featured in Ink were deeply compelling, and I felt that Maberry did an exceptional job featuring them throughout this novel.

If there is one thing that Maberry is particularly good at it, it is creating iconic and despicable antagonists for his novels.  Ink is no exception to this, as Maberry has once again produced a dark and sinister figure in Owen Minor, the self-proclaimed Lord of the Flies.  Owen is an inherently creepy and deeply disturbing individual who has gained the ability to steal people’s tattoos and the associated memories with them, as well as several other abilities.  Thanks to a series of intriguing interludes, Maberry dives into the history of Owen, showing his origins as a character, what his motivations are and how he realised what his powers were.  This examination of Owen’s psyche and history is both fascinating and unsettling and getting this deeper look into the character’s soul makes the reader dislike him even more, especially as you begin to realise just how twisted he truly is.  The author also includes a number of chapters from the point of view of several different side characters who have been infected by Owen in some way or another.  These scenes not only help to explore the true extent of his abilities but they also show the lengths he is willing to go to get his favourite meal.  The way in which he attacks his victims and then revels in their mental agony ensures that the reader builds a deep hatred for him and you really cannot wait to see him get some form of comeuppance.  All in all, this was another great antagonist from Maberry, and I look forward to seeing what sort of maniac creature he comes up with next time.

As I mentioned above, Maberry returns to his iconic town of Pine Deep for this latest novel, with most of the story set within it.  This proves to be a fascinating and dark location for this great book, and I think that Maberry had fun revisiting this haunted town.  The author really loads a sense of menace and despair into nearly every scene set within the town, and this is enhanced by every character recognising just how weird and dangerous the place can be.  There is a lot of history associated with Pine Deep, as during the original Pine Deep trilogy the town was nearly destroyed by dark forces, with the survivors deeply traumatised as a result.  These events, now know by everyone as The Troubles, are a major part of the town’s identity, and Maberry does a great job teasing out what happened during The Troubles to new readers, with only hints and vague comments describing for the first part of the book.  It proved to be quite fascinating to see how the town has recovered in the roughly 15 years since the events of the Pine Deep trilogy, and Maberry fans will have an amazing time seeing this continuation of the setting.  I really enjoyed seeing the characters explore Pine Deep once again and I hope that Maberry has plans to revisit again in some of his future novels.

One of the more compelling elements of this book is the author’s examination of the importance of tattoos and the memories that people associate with them.  I have to admit that I am not particularly into tattoos; while I can appreciate the cool art that other people get, it is really not something I would consider doing for myself.  However, I deeply enjoyed the way in which Maberry explored the tattoo world in this novel, examining both tattoo artists and the people who desire the art on their body.  In particular, he explores the way in which people get tattoos to mark special or significant occasions, or how tattoos can be used to memorialise tragedy or dark moments from someone’s life and the emotional and memory connections that result from the tattoos.  This becomes quite a significant part of the novel, because the antagonist steals the tattoos to get to the memories associated with it.  As a result, Maberry than examines the impact of losing such a memory and what it could potentially do it to a person.  While some characters manage ok with losing these darker memories, a lot of them are deeply troubled by it, as going through these events and overcoming them, are key to their identity.  Without these memories, and the tattoos that personify them on their body, these characters become despondent, and in many cases it becomes too much for them to bear.  It helps to really emphasise just how evil and malignant the actions of the antagonist is, and I really appreciated the author’s dives into the human psyche and his compelling depiction of what happens when someone loses their memory and identity.  The removal of certain memories from the various point-of-view characters also adds a new level of difficulty to the protagonist’s investigation, as they have to try and find a way to hunt down someone who they can’t remember.  These inclusions really added a lot to the story, and readers may come away with a deeper understanding of how important tattoos can be to people.

As with all of Maberry’s novels that I have so far enjoyed, I really could not resist grabbing the audiobook version of Ink.  The Ink audiobook has a run time of just over 15 hours, which is a typical length for one of Maberry’s novels, and I found it extremely easy to power through this book in less than a week.  Part of this was because of the excellent narration of long-time Maberry narrator, Ray Porter, who once again lends his awesome vocal talent to this thrilling book.  Porter is probably one of my favourite audiobook narrators at the moment, and I cannot imagine listening to one of Maberry’s novels without his amazing voices.  Just like he does in the Joe Ledger novels, Porter really dives into the characters he is portraying, ensuring that the full range of their emotions become abundantly clear to anyone to who listening to the story.  He is also does an amazing job enhancing the horror elements of this book with some of his creepier tones, and the listener can get chills at the horrible and slimy voices he uses for the antagonist or for some of the darker scenes in Ink.  While it was a little disconcerting at time to hear some of the familiar voices from the Joe Ledger audiobooks in this new novel, Porter was once again fantastic narrating Ink, and I would strongly recommend this format as the ideal way to check this book out.

Jonathan Maberry once again shows why he is one of the preeminent authors of the weird thriller novel, with this outstanding horror book Ink.  Ink is an extremely clever and thrilling horror book that grabs the reader’s attention from the beginning and refuses to let go.  Thanks to the outstanding narrative, impressive characters and interesting themes, Ink proves to be a captivating and exciting read, especially when combined with the distinctive setting of Pine Deep from Maberry’s previous novels.  As a result, Ink comes highly recommended, especially in its audiobook format, and this novel is worth checking out.  I had an exceptional time reading this book and I cannot wait for Maberry’s next novel, Relentless, which comes out in several long months.

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Waiting on Wednesday – Relentless by Jonathan Maberry

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Science Fiction, Thriller, Waiting on Wednesday11 Comments

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy.  I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings.  Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them.  In this latest Waiting on Wednesday I take a look at next upcoming book from the incredible Jonathan Maberry, Relentless, which will continue the exciting adventures of his long-running protagonist Joe Ledger.

Relentless Cover

Long-term readers of my blog will know that I have a lot of love for Jonathan Maberry’s books; indeed I am currently in the middle of listening to his latest novel, the standalone horror book Ink.  However, the Maberry novels that I have most enjoyed over the years has been the extraordinary Joe Ledger series, which follows a covert military operator, the titular Joe Ledger, as he attempts to counter several elaborate plots and terrorist attacks by sophisticated and high-tech adversaries.  I absolutely fell in love with these books the moment I read one of the later novels in the series and I have spent the last couple of years going back and reading every single Joe Ledger book, finishing it off earlier this year.  Each of these books was extremely well written, deeply compelling and full of intense action, and I ended up rating every single one of them extremely highly.

The original Joe Ledger series came to an end in 2018, but the storylines and characters from this original series continued with the Rogue Team International series, which started in 2019 with Rage.  The Rogue Team International books are written in a similar vein to the original Joe Ledger novels and they continue to follow Ledger as he takes on international terrorists and criminal masterminds.  I had an outstanding time reading Rage last year and it ended up being one of my favourite books (and audiobooks) of 2019.  Needless to say, I have been eagerly awaiting news of any upcoming Joe Ledger novels for a while and I was extremely excited when I heard that the second Rogue Team International novel, Relentless, is coming out next year.

Relentless is currently sent for release on 13 July 2021 and it looks set to continue some of the excellent storylines set up in the first novel.  Both the cover art and the synopsis for Relentless are already out, and if I wasn’t hyped up for this book before I found out what was going to happen in it, I sure as hell was once I read the following:

Synopsis:

Rogue Team International joins Joe Ledger in a new hunt that spans the globe and journeys deep into the terrifying landscape of the human heart.

JOE LEDGER’s world has been torn apart. The people closest to him have been savagely murdered and Ledger is on the hunt for the killers. His already fragile psyche has cracked apart, allowing a dangerous darkness to overwhelm him.

His hunt takes him deep into the world of the deadly black market weapons sales, and standing in his way are a new generation of private military contractors. These mercenaries have been enhanced with cutting-edge cybernetics and chemical enhancements, transforming them into real-world super soldiers. Stronger, faster, harder to hurt, and fitted with built-in weapons. They are beyond anything Joe has ever faced.

But he is not the Joe Ledger they expected to fight. He is defined by the Darkness now. The attempt to destroy him–to break him–has backfired. Instead his enemies have turned him into a far more fearsome weapon.

Everyone is out for blood.

This is an extremely cool synopsis, and there is a lot of detail in there about what amazing features the reader can expect when Relentless comes out.  Not only is the protagonist going to come up against a group of cool new villains, enhanced super-solider assassins no less, but there is going to be a huge focus on the protagonist’s psyche after the traumatic ending to Rage, in which his entire family was killed before his eyes.  This should make for some really intense moments, especially as Joe Ledger has always been a particularly damaged individual who turns his severe childhood trauma (and no author writes trauma as well as Maberry) into supreme murderous rage and an impressive fighting spirit.  Having him even more unhinged than before is going to be extremely fascinating and terrifying, and I cannot wait to see how deep and far Maberry dives into his character and what carnage will result from his actions (a fight between a super pissed Joe Ledger and super-soldiers will definitely be worth seeing).  It will also be interesting to see if Ledger catches up with the antagonists behind the attack on his family in this novel, or whether they will be an alternate antagonist in the story.  Either way, the reader is in for a lot of fun and a lot of hyper-violence when Relentless comes out.

Like many novels I feature in my Waiting on Wednesday articles, I know well in advance that I am going to love Relentless when it comes out.  Based on how much I have enjoyed the author’s prior books, I very confident that I am in for a real treat with Relentless and I am deeply excited to find out what sort of impressive narrative he comes up with this time.  Maberry is such an incredible author and I have grown to really enjoy his fantastic writing style and ability to come up with captivating storylines and fascinating characters.  I cannot wait to see what happens in this awesome upcoming novel and this next chapter in the life of Joe Ledger is sure to be a good one.  I am planning to grab the audiobook version of it (especially if it is narrated by the always impressive Ray Porter) and I have no doubts that Relentless will end up being one of my top novels and audiobooks of 2021.

While I am waiting for Relentless to come out (it is going to be a long eight months), make sure to come back in a week or so to read my review of Ink.  You should also make sure to check out my reviews of Maberry’s Joe Ledger series, including Patient Zero, The Dragon Factory, The King of Plagues, Assassin’s Code, Extinction Machine, Code Zero, Predator One, Kill Switch, Dogs of War and Deep Silence.

Assault by Fire by Lt. Col. Hunter Ripley Rawlings IV

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Thriller2 Comments

Assault by Fire Cover

Publisher: Recorded Books (Audiobook – 29 September 2020)

Series: Tyce Asher – Book One

Length: 10 hours and 11 minutes

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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From the military mind of debuting solo author Lt. Col. Hunter Ripley Rawlings IV comes Assault by Fire, an intense and action-packed novel that sees the Russians invade and take over America.

After losing his leg in the Middle East, Marine officer Tyce Asher believes that his military days are over.  Forced to babysit reserve troopers during exercises, Tyce is suddenly drawn into action when the Russians launch a sudden and unexpected invasion of America from land, sea and air, devastating the nation’s defences and swiftly gaining control of the Government.  With the bulk of the United States forces deployed to the Middle East, it falls to reserve forces, such as the one Tyce commands, to fight back against the invaders.  With minimal supplies, ammo, armoured vehicles or reinforcements, Tyce is forced to lead his combined regiment of Army and Marine reservists into the West Virginian mountains in order to regroup and avoid detection.  Recruiting what civilians, mountain men and veterans he can, Tyce forms an effective fighting force that has the potential to do some damage against the invaders.  Will Tyce’s small army be enough to hold back the tide of Russians, or are these the last days of American independence?

Assault by Fire is an exciting and entertaining novel that places the reader right into the heart of a Russian invasion of America.  This was a really cool novel from Rawlings, who first came into literary prominence last year with Red Metal, a novel he co-wrote with thriller writer Mark Greaney.  I was a major fan of Red Metal, as it was one of my favourite books (and audiobooks) of 2019, and I was keen to see how Rawlings’s first solo novel would turn out.  I ended up having a great time listening to this fantastic novel.  Rawlings has successfully utilised the always-intriguing concept of an invasion or war on American soil and ended up writing quite an enjoyable story around it.  Assault by Fire is the first novel in Rawlings’s Tyce Asher series and after how much I enjoyed the first book I am definitely planning to check out the rest of the series in the future.

This was a pretty good debut from Rawlings, who has come up with an intense and enjoyable modern military thriller novel.  Assault by Fire is a particularly fast-paced novel chock full of memorable and vivid action sequences that are guaranteed to get the readers blood pumping.  Rawlings makes good use of multiple perspectives, including from the point of view of several Russian characters, to tell a rich and clever story about a foreign invasion of the United States.  I loved some of the awesome ideas that Rawlings inserted into the compelling novel, and this ended up being a really fun book to check out.  I do need to point out that there was an occasional lack of consistency throughout the book which was a little distracting at times and some of the characterisations were a little weird or unrealistic.  However, these issues did not take away from the story too much and I think that Rawlings has the potential to improve as an author in the future.  Overall, this was an intriguing and captivating novel that is worth checking out.

I really enjoyed the cool American invasion concept that Rawlings utilises for Assault by Fire.  Russian invasions are something that Rawlings has explored before in Red Metal, with the Russians invading Europe and Africa in that novel while striking at US military targets.  Potential invasions of America have formed the basis of several intriguing novels and movies over the years (Red Dawn probably being the most prominent example) and I felt that Rawlings did an awesome job coming up with his own unique take on this story idea.  Throughout the book, Rawlings presents an interesting scenario where America is only able to be invaded after the majority of its troops are deployed to the Middle East, most nuclear weapons have been disarmed worldwide, and gun control has been introduced in America, taking away everyone’s assault rifles (I’m going to avoid getting into a gun control debate over the last point).  The way in which the Russians invade and manage to take over America is very cool and dramatic, and it was interesting to see how Rawlings, who apparently worked on several scenarios during his time working in the Pentagon, envisioned a potential invasion going down.  The initial invasion sequence is pretty awesome, and features several great scenes of Washington DC falling and other key locations getting hit, much to the surprise of the characters watching it.  Another aspect of this invasion scenario I enjoyed was the way in which the American troops were the ones who lacked resources and support after all their strategic bases and headquarters were destroyed or seized during the initial invasion.  This forced the characters to fight like insurgents and engage in guerrilla warfare, and there were several discussions from some of the veteran soldiers about using the tactics that they themselves had experienced while fighting in the Middle East.  Watching the protagonists adapt to this change of circumstances was rather fascinating, and Rawlings has clearly put some thought into how a war on American soil could actually be fought.  I really enjoyed some of the ideas he came up with for these fights, and I was especially amused by the use of some World War II relics in one major battle scene.  I do kind of wish that Rawlings had expanded the scope of his story to encompass the entirety of America and beyond.  While the events in Virginia and West Virginia were cool, I would have absolutely loved to see how the war was being fought across the entire country, and a story with multiple protagonists across America and outside of it might have been a little more impressive.  Still, I liked the way in which Rawlings explored this concept, and it made for a great story.

The real strength of this novel is the way in which Rawlings imports his substantial military knowledge into the story, creating a ton of amazing action sequences that really make an impression on the reader.  Rawlings clearly knows his stuff, as he provides a ton of details about the various weapons, vehicles, technology and tactics that the soldiers are utilising.  This added detail, as well as the impressive descriptions of how the armaments work and what they can do, really help to make the already cool action sequences even more vivid and you get a real sense of what a modern soldier experiences during battle.  A number of awesome scenes really stick in the mind as a result, from some excellent sniper scenes, a cool pitched battle with some historical technology and some particularly cool combat sequences between armoured vehicles that occurred towards the end of the novel.  Rawlings also ramps up the authenticity of the story by utilising a ton of military jargon and acronyms, so you get a real sense of being in the midst of a tactical discussion by soldiers.  The author also attempts to get into the head of the various soldiers, especially the commander, Tyce Asher, in order to show the doubts, fears and concerns that they experience during combat or while making command decisions.  I felt that all of Rawlings’s military experiences translated across into the novel extremely well, and it really helped to enhance the overall story.

I ended up grabbing the audiobook version of Assault by Fire, which was narrated by Graham Winton.  The Assault by Fire audiobook has a run time of just over 10 hours, and I was able to get through it in about a week.  Winton did a good job of narrating this fun book, and it was rather cool to hear the events of the book unfold, as the narration helped bring the listener right into the middle of the fighting.  The audiobook ended being a great way to enjoy this book, especially as the story clips along at a swift pace in this format, and I would recommend the audiobook for anyone interested in checking out Assault by Fire.

Assault by Fire by Hunter Ripley Rawlings is an awesome modern military thriller that places the reader right in the midst of a Russian invasion of America.  Featuring an impressively exciting narrative based around a cool story concept, Assault by Fire is a lot of fun, and readers can expect a high-octane, action-packed novel.  This turned out to be a rather fantastic debut from Rawlings, and I look forward to seeing where this series goes in the future.

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The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Murder Mystery, Thriller22 Comments

The Law of Innocence Cover

Publisher: Allen & Unwin (Trade Paperback – 10 November 2020)

Series: Mickey Haller – Book six

Length: 421 pages

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

Amazon

The master of the modern-day crime fiction novel, Michael Connelly, presents his second release of 2020, The Law of Innocence, which sees the return of one of his most iconic protagonist, the Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey Haller, who is forced to defend his most important client yet: himself.

Defence lawyer Mickey Haller is flying high after a series of high-profile wins in court.  However, his life is about to come crashing down around him when he is pulled over by police and the body of a former client is found in the trunk of his Lincoln.  Haller is swiftly charged with murder and slapped with an unpayable $5 million bail that forces him to stay in the infamous Twin Towers Jail in downtown Los Angeles.

Determined to prove that he has been framed, Haller chooses to defend himself and starts to construct his case in prison.  With the help of his expert team, including his half-brother, Harry Bosch, Haller attempts to discover who is really behind the murder and why he is being targeted.  However, the answers and a viable alternate suspect seem elusive, and Haller soon finds himself the target of everyone in the criminal justice system that he has managed to alienate throughout his career.

With the trial quickly approaching and a vengeful prosecutor angling to get Haller the death sentence, the defence will need every trick at their disposal if they are to save Haller’s life.  However, this entire case sits at the centre of an elaborate conspiracy, one where anyone who knows anything is at risk.  Can Haller survive the case and his dangerous prison sentence, or will this be the last trial for the Lincoln Lawyer?

The Law of Innocence was an impressive and enjoyable book from Michael Connelly, who has once again written a top-notch crime fiction novel.  I have really been getting into Connelly’s work over the last couple of years and I have had an exceptional time reading his last three novels, Dark Sacred Night, The Night Fire and Fair Warning.  Due to this, and the fact that I really liked its plot synopsis, The Law of Innocence was one of my most anticipated reads for the year, and I have been looking forward to it for a while.  This is the sixth novel to feature Mickey Haller as its protagonist and point-of-view character, and the 35th overall novel to be set in Connelly’s overarching crime fiction universe.  I had an amazing time reading this book, another fantastic outing from Connelly.

Connelly has come up with an exceptional story for this excellent book, and it is one that I really enjoyed.  Indeed, I actually got so caught up in The Law of Innocence’s awesome narrative that I managed to read the entire book in just one day, not even realising that I had stayed up till 3am to finish it off (work the next day was not fun, but staying up was worth it).  The story that Connelly utilises in this novel is extremely compelling and intriguing, as it forces the protagonist to not only solve a murder but also prove to the court that he did not commit it.  This leads to an intense, emotional and clever story that combines a fantastic murder mystery plot with some excellent legal thriller elements, while also placing the protagonist in significant danger while being held in prison.  There were a number of amazing elements to this book, and the story flows at an extremely fast pace whilst following a crafty but likeable protagonist.  Connelly makes sure to continue to explore Haller’s personal issues at the same time, featuring the supporting characters and family members from the previous Mickey Haller novels, including an old flame with whom Haller finally gets some closure.  The Law of Innocence also featured Connelly’s most iconic protagonist, Harry Bosch, who attempts to help Haller clear his name.  While Bosch was a little underutilised, especially considering how much he was featured in some of the pre-publishing advertising, it was great to see him in another book and it was interesting to see more of the relationship between these estranged half-brothers.  The Law of Innocence also contains some interesting connections to previous Mickey Haller novels, and fans of this protagonist will be intrigued to see which characters make a return.  While I really enjoyed most of the story, I did feel that ending was a little weak.  The entire conclusion to the case occurs rather suddenly towards the end of the book and it feels a little forced and simplistic.  It also lacked the excitement of the rest of The Law of Innocence, and I would have much preferred something a little more shocking or some major courtroom shenanigans to really round out the book.  While this ending was a bit disappointing, I still think that The Law of Innocence’s story was still substantially strong, and I had an exceptional time getting through it.

One of the things that impress me about Connelly’s writing is his ability to create substantially different crime fiction novels based on the protagonist he is featuring.  For example, his Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch novels are excellent police procedurals, while his Jack McEvoy books feature clever investigations by a journalist.  The Law of Innocence, on the other hand, was written as a legal thriller, due to it being a Mickey Haller novel.  This proved to be an interesting change of pace from the previous Connelly novels I have read, but I really enjoyed it, mainly due to the sheer amount of legal detail that the author fits into the novel.  Connelly does an amazing job fitting an entire fascinating legal case into this book, going all the way from the arrest to the conclusion of trial.  Along the way, The Law of Innocence covers everything from case preparation, pre-trial hearings, bail, jury selections and the main trial, while also containing a lot of descriptions and discussions about the criminal justice system in Los Angeles.  Due to the fact the book is told solely from Haller’s point of view, there is a natural focus on the art of defending a client, with a number of the tricks of the trade being featured.  I found all of the legal aspects of The Law of Innocence to be extremely fascinating, and Connelly makes sure to explain all of these legal details in a comprehensive and easy to follow way.  I loved seeing Haller work his legal magic throughout the book, especially as the reader gets to see into Haller’s mind and find out what he was actually planning and how successful his various gambles actually are.  It was also particularly cool to see him forced to deal with the handicap of defending himself whilst being stuck in jail, especially as he was not able to investigate the crime himself or have access to his usual resources.  Overall, my first experience of one of Connelly’s legal thrillers turned out to be very enjoyable and I thought that the author wrote an awesome story around it.  I look forward to seeing what cool legal cases Connelly comes up with the next time he utilises Haller as a protagonist, and I am sure it will make for another fun read.

Another interesting part of this book that I quite enjoyed was the clever inclusion of COVID-19 into the plot.  The plot of The Law of Innocence is set over the course of a couple of months, from late 2019 to March 2020, with the coronavirus slowly becoming more prevalent as the book proceeds.  This starts with some throwaway mentions of the virus and Wuhan in the parts of the book set in November, which the reader would initially attribute to a cute mention that was not going to go anywhere.  However, as the book progresses, the references to the virus become more and more numerous, until it actually becomes a major part of the plot, with the protagonist suddenly facing the reality of it when his legal team walk into prison wearing face masks.  I found it deeply fascinating to see the author utilise the coronavirus in his book and it was rather compelling to see the impacts it had on the central plot, with elements of the court case, such as jury selection, fast-tracked to ensure that the case could be held before everything got shut down.  Connelly was actually quite subtle with how he featured the coronavirus in his story, and I felt that the growing levels of concern that the characters show in this book realistically matched what people felt in real life, with excellent depictions of the shift from mild indifference to panic buying.  This was honestly one of the first books I have read that mentioned the coronavirus (although I imagine quite a few books next year will have it as a central plot point), and I felt that Connelly handled it extremely well, being an accurate and impactful part of the book, without overly distracting the reader from the central case or overwhelming them with details or experiences everyone is currently extremely familiar with.  This excellent inclusion of real-life elements into a great fictional story is one of the reasons I always enjoy Connelly’s writing, and I look forward to seeing how he addresses the coronavirus in some of his future books (for example, how it might impact murder investigations in a Renee Ballard or Harry Bosch novel).

The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly is another captivating and awesome crime fiction novel that comes highly recommended.  Featuring the antics of defence lawyer Mickey Haller, The Law of Innocence is an amazing legal thriller that readers can really sink their teeth into.  Fun, exciting and compelling, The Law of Innocence is an excellent novel, and both established fans of Connelly and newcomers to his work will be able to dive into this book extremely easily.  I had an amazing time reading The Law of Innocence and I look forward to Connelly’s next exceptional read.

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Waiting on Wednesday – Breakout by Paul Herron

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Thriller, Waiting on Wednesday6 Comments

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy.  I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings.  Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them.  For this Waiting on Wednesday I take a look at a fun and exciting-sounding thriller that is set to come out early next year, Breakout by Paul Herron.

Breakout Cover

Paul Herron is a pseudonym for author and screenwriter Paul Crilley, who has written several fantasy and science fiction novels, including his Delphic Division, The Invisible Order and Tweed & Nightingale Adventures series.  Crilley announced earlier this year that he was planning to start writing thriller novels under the name of Paul Herron, the first of which will be Breakout.

Breakout is an extremely cool-sounding book that is currently set for release on 9 March 2021.  This first thriller from Crilley/Herron is set in a flooded maximum security prison and follows the protagonist’s attempts to escape.  I cannot emphasise how much I love this story concept and I think that it has a lot of potential to be a fantastic read.

Synopsis:

A LETHAL STORM. THE MOST DEADLY PRISON. WHO WILL SURVIVE THE NIGHT?

Jack Constantine – a former cop who killed one of his wife’s murderers in an act of vengeance – is serving his time in Ravenhill penitentiary, a notorious ‘supermax’ home to the most dangerous convicts in the country.

When an apocalyptic superstorm wreaks havoc across the USA, the correctional officers flee the prison…but not before opening every cell door. The inmates must fend for themselves as lethal floodwaters rise and violent anarchy is unleashed.

Teaming up with Kiera Sawyer, a Correctional Officer left behind on her first day of work, Constantine has one chance of survival – he must break out of a maximum security prison. But with the building on the verge of collapse, and deadly chaos around him, time is running out…

There is so much to love about the above synopsis.  Not only will the get some great thriller action from the prison breakout story but you also have the stakes raised incredibly high with a flooded building and an entire facilities worth of hostile, high-risk criminals trying to kill the protagonists.  Everything about this book just sounds so awesome, and I am extremely confident that I am going to have an incredible time reading it.  I cannot wait to see what madness the author installs in his first thriller novel and I am looking forward to all the fun and mayhem

Waiting on Wednesday – A Prince and a Spy by Rory Clements

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Historical Fiction, Thriller, Waiting on Wednesday8 Comments

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy.  I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings.  Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them.  In this week’s Waiting on Wednesday I look at an awesome upcoming historical thriller, A Prince and a Spy by Rory Clements.

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Rory Clements is an outstanding and talented author who has written several exciting and clever historical thrillers throughout his career.  I have been a fan of Clements for a while now and I have enjoyed several of his books in the past.  In particular, I have been really getting into his current body of work, the Tom Wilde series, of which I have so far read all four books: Corpus, Nucleus, Nemesis and Hitler’s Secret.  Each of these novels has been really cool, presenting complex and compelling thriller storylines set before and during the events of World War II.  So far in this series the protagonist, dashing American history professor Tom Wilde, has managed to avert an armed coup against King George VI, stopped the Nazis gaining nuclear secrets, thwarted an attempt to kill the Kennedy family and infiltrated Germany at the height of the war to save Hitler’s secret daughter.  However, Clements is far from done, and in his new book, A Prince and a Spy, Wilde will investigate another curious event from history.

Plot Synopsis:

Sweden, 1942 – Two old friends meet. They are cousins. One is Prince George, Duke of Kent, brother of the King of England. The other is Prince Philipp von Hesse, a committed Nazi and close friend of Adolf Hitler.

Days later, the Prince George is killed in a plane crash in the north of Scotland. The official story is that it was an accident – but not everyone is convinced.

There is even a suggestion that the Duke’s plane was sabotaged, but with no evidence, Cambridge spy Tom Wilde is sent north to discover the truth . . .

This new novel from Clements sounds really interesting, and I am looking forward to seeing how this cool story pans out.  Based on my prior experiences with Clements’s Tom Wilde novels, I know that the author is able to craft a great historical thriller around clever plot idea, and I am quite intrigued to find out what sort of story he can come up with around the death of Prince George, Duke of Kent.  I have to admit that I am a little unfamiliar with the late Duke of Kent and his untimely demise, but he seems to be a rather striking historical figure thanks to his colourful personal life and his status as the first British Royal to die in military service in hundreds of years, as well as being the only member of the Royal Family to die due to World War II.  I have no doubt Clements will weave together something extremely interesting memorable out of this notable historical event and I am very curious to see what it is.

A Prince and a Spy is currently set for release on 21 January 2021 and I think it is going to be one of the better novels to start the new year with.  It certainly sounds like Clements has come up with another compelling entry in his awesome Tom Wilde historical thriller series, and I am really looking forward to seeing what sort of clever and exciting adventure he has comes up with in this new novel.

Total Power by Kyle Mills (based on the series by Vince Flynn)

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Thriller13 Comments

Total Power Cover

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook – 15 September 2020)

Series: Mitch Rapp – Book 19

Length: 9 hours and 27 minutes

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

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Acclaimed thriller writer Kyle Mills returns with his latest entry in the long-running Mitch Rapp series, Total Power, a haunting and compelling new book that portrays a devastating and country-altering attack on America.

America’s top spy and assassin Mitch Rapp is back in action, and this time he’s racing to keep America from falling into the Dark Ages.  After eliminating his nemesis, Sayid Halabi, the head of ISIS, Mitch and his team have been working to clean up the remnants of Halabi’s operation before they can reorganise for another attack.  When the CIA manages to locate ISIS’s top technology expert, Mitch leads a team to intercept him and makes a disturbing discovery: the expert was on the way to meet someone who claims that they can turn out all the lights in the United States.

A rogue genius has discovered a way completely incapacitate America’s power grid and is now seeking help to make his dark dream a reality.  An attack of this magnitude has the capacity to severely incapacitate the entire country, bringing about anarchy, destruction and an unimaginable loss of life.  Desperately trying to find out who is behind this attack before it is too late, Mitch can only watch helpless as the plan is implemented and the country he loves falls dark.

As panic and confusion reigns across the country and the whole world reels from the sudden shift in power, the government desperately attempts to get the electricity flowing again.  However, due to the sheer scope of the attack and the chaotic nature of America’s power grid, repairs could take months or even years.  The only way to avoid the complete destruction of the United States is for Mitch to find the person responsible for the attack and convince him to reveal how to undo the damage and reroute power to the country.  However, this will be a search unlike anything he has done before, as he is stuck in the middle of a failing nation with no communications, no internet, no gas and with every single system he knows failing around him.  Can Mitch get the power back before it is too late and America collapses completely, or have the terrorists Mitch has spent his whole career fighting finally won?

This was another fun and addictive thriller from Kyle Mills, who continues to keep the Mitch Rapp books going strong after the passing of the series’ original writer, Vince Flynn.  Total Power is the sixth Mitch Rapp novel written by Mills and the 19th overall novel in the series, and it features the latest adventure from the titular character and his associates.  I have been really enjoying the Mitch Rapp novels over the last couple of years and I have had an amazing time reading the last two entries in the series, Red War and Lethal Agent.  This latest Mitch Rapp novel is another exciting and compelling book which makes use of an excellent concept and once again sets the series’ extremely dangerous protagonist on a destructive warpath.

Total Power is an excellent modern thriller novel that presents the reader with another exciting and action-packed narrative as American agent Mitch Rapp engages in another desperate manhunt for a new dangerous madman targeting America.  This was a really fun and compelling narrative, set around the fantastic story concept of all the power going out in the United States.  Total Power was a very fast-paced book, and the reader gets an excitement overload as they watch the protagonists attempt to stop the disaster and the subsequent frantic efforts to get the power back on.  The author makes good use of multiple point-of-view characters to tell his story, with most of the novel told from the perspective of Mitch Rapp and the main antagonist.  These two characters allow for a very interesting opposing view of the events occurring throughout America, and it is also fun to see the various moves and countermoves the two made in a bid to outsmart the other.  Other point-of-view characters were used a little more sparingly and presented a larger picture of the events occurring around the main narrative.  These disparate perspectives come together extremely well and help to create an overall captivating novel with a really fun story attached.  Mills makes sure to include all the typical Mitch Rapp hyper violence (with a few gnarly torture scenes that some readers will find a bit uncomfortable) and commentary on American politicians and foreign policy, and readers are in for an entertaining over-the-top novel as a result.

When I first heard that this book was coming out, the thing that really drew me to it was the awesome-sounding plot concept of all the power going out in America, which I thought would be a really cool basis for a thriller story.  Mills delivered in spades, and I was really happy to find out just how amazing a story concept it really was.  The author spends a substantial amount of time exploring how such a catastrophic blackout event could occur in America.  It was deeply fascinating, if a little troubling, to learn more about America’s power grid, as well as how potentially easy it could be for something like this to occur.  Indeed, Mills makes a note at the start of the audiobook that he actually had to invent very little of this concept and that a lot of the novel is based off historical events and public reports (although he does alter or fictionalise some details and locations).  Mills also makes sure to explore just how severe and deadly a sustained, nationwide power outage could be.  Spoiler alert: it would apparently get pretty damn bad.  There are some riveting and disturbing depictions of America completely devoid of power, with all manner of lawlessness, looting, and anarchy as the country quickly falls apart and people have no ability to keep themselves alive.  Mills does not pull punches in these depictions and I personally found them to be realistic, especially after seeing what happened in America in 2020, and a little terrifying.  Naturally, this fictionally powerless America proves to be an amazing setting for this thriller novel, and it was fantastic to see Mitch Rapp and the other characters attempt to navigate around the broken country.  All the subsequent barriers and issues that pop up add a lot of tension and excitement to an already action-packed narrative, especially as it’s entirely possible that Mitch could be taken out by citizens of the country he has long tried to protect.  All of this is an outstanding story concept and I am extremely glad that Mills ended up using it in one of his novels even if it did leave me a little paranoid (here’s hoping that our power grid is a little more stable down here in Australia).

If I had to level any real criticisms towards Total Power, it would probably be around the characters.  While I did enjoy seeing the various characters attempt to navigate their way through this latest crisis and the wasteland of a United States without power, most of the characters were really over-the-top and a bit unrealistic.  For example, Mitch Rapp is his usual ultra-violent, sociopathic self, hardly ever hesitating to kill someone, even a bunch of American citizens who are in his way.  While he is a fun action star to follow after, it was hard to root for him when he is constantly being a cold-hearted murderer the entire time.  I also was not the biggest fan of the main antagonist, the genius who shuts down the power.  Mills portrays him as a supremely arrogant man, completely high on himself and obsessed with becoming a major historical figure like Caesar or Genghis Khan (you know, history’s greatest role models).  While I can appreciate Mills wanting to make him an unlikeable villain for the sake of the reader he might have gone a tad overboard with this as pretty much every sentence or thought that the antagonist makes is either something extremely egotistical about himself or insulting towards the people he is seeing, often with sexist or racist overtones.  That being said, it was extremely satisfying to see this villain’s plans going up in smoke around him as Mitch closes in on him, especially since you do want to kill him yourself after listening to him for a few hours.  I did like the fun side character, Jed Jones, a survivalist who gains celebrity status in the post-blackout America thanks to his informative radio shows.  Jed was a rather entertaining figure and I liked the idea of a backwater doomsday prepper becoming the most famous person in the country thanks to his knowhow.  The book ended up featuring an interesting array of side characters who added some interesting diversity to the cast and showed some of the different experiences facing the American people.  Indeed, one of the few things that they had in common were similar opinions about America’s politicians and political elite, in that all of them are pretty much all useless parasites, something that gets mentioned multiple times.  Overall, the characters for this novel weren’t too bad and while some of these characterisations are a little distracting it did not really disrupt my enjoyment of Total Power, and I had a fantastic time seeing how they dealt with the problems in this setting.

Rather than grab a physical copy of this latest Mitch Rapp novel, I ended up enjoying the audiobook version of Total Power.  The Total Power audiobook has a run time of around nine and a half hours and is narrated by veteran audiobook narrator George Guidall, who is one of the most prolific audiobook narrators in the world.  This proved to be a rather easy audiobook to get through and I was able to finish it off in a short period of time.  It was fun to listen to listen to Total Power’s story and I felt myself getting drawn into the narrative as a result.  I do have to admit that Guidall is really not one of my favourite vocal talents.  Do not get me wrong, Guidall does a great job with this book, especially as his deep voice has a lot of gravitas to it which works well with thriller novels.  However, Guidall does sound a bit tired at times (to be fair, he is in his 80s), and his range of voices is a tad limited.  Despite this I still really enjoyed the Total Power audiobook and it is definitely an excellent way to check out this latest Mitch Rapp novel.

Total Power by Kyle Mills is a great new entry in Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series that I ended up really enjoying.  Featuring an excellent thriller story set around an impressive and compelling plot concept, Mills presents the reader with an exciting and bloody adventure across an America without any power.  Total Power proved to be quite an exciting and awesome read, and I am really glad that I listened to it.

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