Got this one signed through a pre-order! It's a typical Joe Ledger action packed thriller. There are a lot of players on the board and several plot points are left hanging for the next installment. Short chapters, jumps in time and location, and big action sequences, all hallmarks of this series as the RTI takes on a challenging case in the middle east with lots of twists, turns, science, and genetically engineered bioweapons. I'll read every Joe Ledger book that comes out. ( )

Jonathan Maberry is one of very few authors who, when they release a new book, I will drop whatever I'm doing and go read it. This runs double for anything involving Joe Ledger.

That being said, this book was a different animal from most of the other 12 Ledger novels in that it feels very much like a middle book of a trilogy. I don't think it is, but it feels that way.

At the start, we're given a different Joe Ledger. The normally competent, yet troubled warrior is coming back from his worst, darkest mission, and while he's healing, his confidence has been shaken, as has both his team's trust in him, as well as his trust in himself. So, it's very much a continuation of the fallout from Relentless.

At the same time, we're served up a veritable buffet of concerns about the new threat—or is that threats? —rearing up. And while, if you're a constant reader of this series, you'll be treated to usual crazy tech, wild villains, insane action and fantastic storytelling that only Maberry can provide, this one doesn't necessarily tie up everything in a neat bow by the end. Instead, it very much leaves the door open to at least a couple of more threats down the line.

I will say that, while the Ledger series as a whole has never been light, I've found that Maberry's really taken the stories to some much darker places with the RTI change. The stakes have always been high in all the novels, but now, the stakes are both more terrifying, and they have far more personal impact on Ledger and his team.

And I, for one, am here for it.

It'll be interesting to see where Maberry takes this series as he's really slapped the entire cast around in this book. Everyone's going to be feeling it come the start of the next book.

And yet again, I have to applaud the incredible narration that Ray Porter brings to the audiobook. Nobody does audiobooks like Porter. ( )