Published posthumously, Kirk cannot relax in his island retreat with his new wife, Pete, recovering after the events of Book #23 and their near brush with death when Otto and Louise show up. They begin to look into the mysterious deaths of Kirk's parents in a car accident when they both worked at Los Alamos on a spy satellite process. The Russians don't want Pandora's box opened and activate an assassination squad, who do some damage forcing Otto (and his darlings) to go dark. Lots of near death experiences, especially after Kirk smacks the bee's nest by personally threatening Vladimir Putin. Behind the scenes is a major power struggle in Russia, where someone is always being threatened with the proverbial nine ounces (weight of a bullet.) If you are able to suspend belief, you will enjoy this one. Way better than Book #24.

Seems to be a "new" book being published in April 2021. Reminds me of the old joke, when they opened Mozart's mausoleum and found him sitting at his piano erasing music. When asked what he was doing, Mozart responded: "I'm decomposing." ( )

The World’s Most Dangerous Assassin

Kirk McGarvey book # 25

When asking for this book from the publisher Macmillan-Tor/Forge through Netgalleys I had not realized it was #25 in the series, there were no notes to that effect but now looking back after reading this story there were no reason to do so. This story stood well as a stand-alone. As agreed when receiving this book the following are my thoughts.

A tid-bit of the story:

McGarvey investigates the mysterious death of his parents a long time ago that unravels a string of buried secrets that are tied to Vladimir Putin. In return the Russian dictator wants him dead and sends Russian Hit Squads to eliminate him….

My thoughts:

Some would say the plot is unrealistic, I do agree but no doubts quite fun to read if you put aside that the smartest computer expect and hacker in the world can do what he is capable of doing in this plot is implausible. He will do anything to help Kirk even if it means to destroy every computer systems on earth….

As the story switches between times from recounting the time of the accident the protagonist’s parents were involved in to his present state of looking into the reason behind their death. Along the ways he comes face to face with members of the hit squad. Of course we have some action and Kirk comes out unscathed to fight another day. The scenario is not too complicated to follow although when the tension builds we definitely want Kirk to success without declaring a war. I wouldn’t say this book is action packed but it has a fair amount to be entertaining enough to keep us pushing forward. The writing is not literature nor pompous. The exchanges between characters are rather down to earth, very simple, really what it should be. As for the characters, you will definitely root for them….maybe even Putin.

“McGarvey” is good but quite the run of the mill type of spy story. ( )