Taut, tense, ingeniously crafted… Sizzling.
Fully developed characters and a fast-moving plot that builds to an exhilarating ending mark this excellent espionage thriller by Bahren, featuring Anna Jones, the gusty female correspondent for the New York Daily Journal. Anna is covering the apparent suicide of Nou Channarong, a DC powerbroker and the World Bank Executive Director for South East Asia when a key source also turns up dead with a bullet to her head. Determined to uncover the truth, Anna heads for Miami. As her path crosses with Raven Garcia, her old nemesis, she has no option but to secure Raven’s help in unraveling the whole mystery. With high-placed international officials, powerful covert operatives in Bangkok, and dangerous rebels in Chiang Mai and Myanmar involved in the conspiracy, getting to the truth of the matter is not only difficult but may also cost Anna her life. Readers will enjoy following Anna as her investigation into the heart of the puzzle takes her from New York to Miami and further to Thailand. There is plenty of action in all the far-flung settings. Bahren adorns this shrewd espionage thriller with well-developed characters and an interesting exploration of investigative journalism. Anna is resolute and intelligent, brilliant and kind and shines all the way through. Anna and Raven, though as different as chalk and cheese have a fresh and believable edge to their personality, and their evolving relationship is endearing. Though Viktor has many disagreeable qualities, including his secretive nature and his inability to come out clean with Anna, Bahren manages to make him sympathetic and thoroughly likeable. Along the way, Bahren describes his characters’ life in discrete pieces, each revealing a bit more about their ambitions, desires, the secrets they hide, the things that make them tick as well as their individual struggles and fears. He not only does a good job of conveying journalism tactics but also is excellent when it comes to crafting page-turning action scenes as well as imaginative plotting. The pacing remains swift, the prose is topnotch, and the fast-moving plot twists and relentless revelations heighten the suspense. Bahren weaves a compulsively readable tale of international conspiracies, political intrigue, and murder, and readers will look forward to the further exploits of his sharp-witted protagonist. This is a wholly gripping spy thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until they turn the last page.
Source of Deceit
By Wolf Bahren
Pigeon Post Books
Pub date November 21, 2020
ISBN 0998238228
Price $14.97 (USD) Paperback, $5.17 Kindle
