Espionage

In The Janus Reprisal, some nasty Pakistani terrorist types are aiming for total annihilation. The head bad guy is Oman Dattar, an especially evil warlord. After escaping from prison, he sets out to destroy New York with a virus that is conducted by bacteria. I’m not qualified to know if the science behind this makes sense, so I’ll take their word for it that such a thing can happen. Out to stop him is John Smith, the man with the generic name, but not so generic skills. He has a few others helping him out, but there is another staple of these types of novel—the typical CIA mole who is trying to help out the bad guys.

There is nothing especially wrong with this novel. It had a logical progression to it. There weren’t any big realism gaps. In these types of novels, the bad guys tend to be over the top and not believable, but I didn’t find that issue here. I also didn’t find anything that makes this novel stand out. It’s fairly generic. If you’ve read enough of these types of political/international terrorism thrillers, it kind of feels like all the rest of them. In a few months, I will probably completely forget everything about this novel. In all, this was a solid story, just not spectacular.

Carl Alves – author of Reconquest: Mother Earth ( )

John Smith of Covert One to the rescue again, saving a female American money trader and thwarting a biological attack on the NY subway. Semi-pro Ludlum book that makes for a better listening experience than a reading one. ( )

Jamie Freveletti has done a stand up job in carrying on the Ludlum torch in this the 9th novel of the Covert One series.

From the opening page with a terrorist attack in the Netherlands to the closing action in the subway of New York it's a gripping page turner with plenty of action and deception.

I might even go as far as to say it's the best of the series thus far. ( )

Rather cryptic ending - how did we get here, from there?? ( )