Night Owl by Andrew Mayne
Trasker #1

Fast-paced, action-packed, thrill-ride that grabbed my attention immediately and kept it till I read the last page.

What I liked:
* Adam Trasker: retired counterintelligence agent, lost his son just as he hoped to spend more time with him, divorced, creates memory palaces to help him retain information, past his prime but still capable, takes on a job with Kylie Connor and can be rather ruthless
* Kylie Connor: aviation inventor and entrepreneur, owner of Wind Aviation, brilliant, her father died when she was young, cares about her employees, a bit ruthless
* Adam’s mother: in the spy game for decades, taught Adam much, intriguing, would like to know more about her
* The plot, pacing, settings, and writing
* The way Trasker figured out who was behind the sabotage
* That I cared about the outcome
* It was easy to dislike the bad guys and want to see them dealt with
* That there will be another book in the series

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* Thinking about the damage countries and individuals can do for questionable motives or monehy

Did I like this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars ( )

Complex technological thriller. ( )

There was so much I liked about this book. Trasker, an aging retired spy who may not be up to the game he is getting sucked back into. A brilliant young woman who dominates her field, owns her own company, is about to own the latest and most brilliant technology and measures up to each and every male that she encounters. Murder, things blowing up, mayhem, bullets flying, bodies falling, but it just wasn’t enough - almost but not quite. We all have different ways of working out problems but mentally placing strange little miniatures on a time traveller’s writing desk was just a little too abstract and I never could connect those dots. And there were so many initial agencies it’s was hard to keep track of who was tracking who, and could the FBI really screw up so badly?!

The mental gymnastics were impressive but overdone when basically it all comes down to knowing when you should trust someone. But is seems as if there is no one that you can trust in this story and it is wearying. The game has changed, the superpowers aren’t the major player, the powerful are businessmen with all the money who can hire all the killers to procure anything and everything. But what is the endgame? I was never completely sure and what’s worse neither was Trasker and that was a problem. Chaos reigns supreme. And it looks as if he has signed on for another installment, so maybe it will all become clear and work out next time. From the other reviews I read it seems as if Trasker’s mother gets the high marks and we are all looking for an encore performance.

Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for a copy. ( )

Great story. No fluff. All good stuff. ( )

Bradley Trasker is a retired spy when he is asked by Kylie Conner to find out who is creating havoc at her aerospace company. In his first interaction with her company, a newly developed plane, the Sparrow, is blown up nearly killing Kylie and others watching a demonstration. Trasker takes over the security for the company while he chases down who is causing all the problems. He determines there must be a mole in the company, but has a hard time finding that person. There is a government contract about to be released and someone or rival company wants to stop the development of the Sparrow. ( )