Retrophisch

The saying is that cats have nine lives. I feel the amount of life iterations Court Gentry has gone through over the course of the Gray Man series exceeds the nine lives of cats, and would wreck lesser men. Yet Mark Greaney continues to find ways to keep Court and the other characters fresh as they face new adventures and new adversaries.

The Hard Line is no different, as The Gray Man and company launch a new off-the-books covert operation at the behest of the CIA’s current Deputy Director of Operations, a 100% deniable outfit he can point at problems the US would rather not have its fingers on. And also because they are the only people the DDO can currently trust, since the US intelligence community has a leak.

If there’s anything I love in an espionage thriller, it’s screwing over the Russians or the Chinese, and rooting out traitors. And if you can do both, well, it’s just double the pleasure, double the fun.

As Court’s first mission under the new venture meets with unexpected resistance, Zack is still recovering from his injuries from the previous novel’s foray in to Russia, and Zoya is unavailable recovering from her time in the gulag, meaning the new venture is hard-pressed for results from the get-go. Along the way, a personal connection to Zack’s past raises the stakes to a degree no one saw coming.

Throughout, Greaney continues to defy formulaic character exposés and plots that plague some thriller series. Zack’s continued development from where he started fifteen books ago has been something of a delight. I thought Mark’s last novel, Midnight Black, was incredible, and would be hard to beat, but The Hard Line may very well be one his best novels ever. Definitely recommended! 📚

5/5 phins
Amazon: hardcover, Kindle
Bookshop: hardcover, ebook

Two top-tier thriller writers team up for a brand new story that combines the best of what both are known for writing. Brad Thor and Ward Larsen’s Cold Zero features a Chinese scientist defecting to the US with the help of the CIA, bringing along a piece of technology he has invented that can alter the balance of power throughout the entire world. The Chinese Ministry of State Security brings all its assets to bear, and then some, managing to down the state-of-the-art airliner the scientist and his CIA handlers are on—somewhere in the unforgiving Arctic Circle.

The race to survive not just the harsh, unforgiving natural elements, but the impending hunt by Chinese forces, is complicated by the arrival of a Russian submarine. As the CIA and the American military work to bring as many assets in to the rescue operation as possible, the tension ratchets up as the weather’s timing threatens to kill the survivors, if the Chinese don’t do it first. The cast of characters surrounding the main ones represent a wide swath across the military and intelligence forces of arguably the three most powerful nations in the world, and the novel highlights the importance of the Arctic in geopolitical relations for years to come.

This is a fantastic thriller. It reads like vintage, Cold-War Clancy at the height of his powers, and clearly shows Thor and Larsen are in top form as well. You won’t be able to put it down! 📚

5/5 phins
Amazon: hardcover, Kindle
Bookshop: hardcover, ebook

One thriller series from this century that I believe has been criminally underrated is W.E.B. Griffin’s Presidential Agent franchise. Weaving together the histories of military families from the Vietnam War up to the present day, the saga follows Charley Castillo, bastard child of a Texican born-and-bred Army helicopter pilot and a German heiress. We see Charley grow up in two worlds, and part of the ongoing arc is how he navigates the two.

We are immersed in a world of colorful characters, from the Russian SVR agents who would eventually join his family, to his Texican cousin, and his various Army commanders and mentors. Perhaps most famously, there is Charley’s abuela, and the influence Doña Alicia has on him, from the moment she meets him and throughout the rest of the series, is profound.

Griffin authored the first five books in the series solo, then collaborated with his son for the next three. At the conclusion of 2013’s Hazardous Duty, it looked like that was the end of the road for Charley and his merry band of fighters. Their arc battling contemporary terrorism, often emerging in unexpected forms, concluded and it appeared Castillo and company were, to a degree, riding off in to the sunset of retirement.

Griffin passed away in 2019, but the series was revived two years later, with the release of Rogue Asset, penned by the incredible writing duo of Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson. Presidential Agent fans were delighted, and expectations arose this was setting the stage for a continuation of the series, with Charley taking on a more indirect role as he became mentor to Marine Raider Pick McCoy. But then all went quiet once again on the franchise front, as it appeared this foray didn’t get the head of steam everyone wanted.

Boy, is it a thundering locomotive now.

Next week sees the release of the 10th installment in the series, Direct Action, helmed by the remarkable Jack Stewart. Leaving from that foundation laid by Andrews & Wilson, Jack shovels so much coal in to the locomotive that it will have readers on the edge of the seat as they watch it power down the track. (I’m done with the train metaphor. Promise.)

Making the nearly incomprehensible decision to (minor spoiler) sideline the series’ protagonist very early on, Stewart gives us his take on Pick McCoy and the new crew, deftly weaving Pick’s past with his present just as Griffin did in the early days of Charley Castillo’s story. The tension ratchets quickly, from a shootout at the Alamo to intrigue in Vienna, the city of spies. Jack forces McCoy and company to a blistering pace as personalities come together to solve the mystery of the attacks, one of which Castillo attempted to stop, that threaten national security while also navigating the waters of personal entanglements.

Knowing what a fan I was of the original series from our commiseration about it, Jack was kind enough to let me read an early draft of Direct Action to get my input on it vis-a-vis Griffin’s works. I was thrilled to see that he nailed the character and plot components that made Griffin’s entries must-reads, and took it to the next level by deepening Pick’s involvement and development. Stewart delivers on the promises made by Rogue Asset, and I can only hope he gets to bring us more of Pick and Charley in the future.

If you loved Griffin’s original Presidential Agent books, this joins them as a must-read, and gets a coveted five (phive?) out of five phins.

Amazon: Hardcover, Kindle
Bookshop: Hardcover, ebook