Audiobook Review: True Fiction by Lee Goldberg

True Fiction
Author: Lee Goldberg

Narrrator: Adam Verner
Series: Ian Ludlow Thrillers (Book 1)
Publication: Thomas & Mercer (April 1, 2018); Brilliance Audio (April 1, 2018)

Length: 6 hours and 51 minutes

Description: #1 New York Times and Amazon Charts bestselling author Lee Goldberg hits the ground running in a breakneck thriller where truth and fiction collide for the unluckiest writer alive.

When a passenger jet crashes onto the beaches of Waikiki, bestselling thriller writer Ian Ludlow knows the horrific tragedy wasn’t an accident.

Years before, the CIA enlisted Ian to dream up terrorism scenarios to prepare the government for nightmares they couldn’t imagine. Now one of those schemes has come true, and Ian is the only person alive who knows how it was done…and who is behind the plot. That makes him too dangerous to live.

Ian goes on the run, sweeping up an innocent bystander in his plight—Margo French, a dog walker and aspiring singer. They are pursued by assassins and an all-seeing global-intelligence network that won’t stop until Ian and Margo are dead. Ian has written thrillers like this before, but this time he doesn’t know how it’s going to end—or if he will be alive to find out.

My Thoughts: The first in the Ian Ludlow series was a fast-paced thriller with more than a hint of humor. Ian Ludlow is an author. He writes thrillers starring Clint Straker, a secret agent who makes James Bond look ineffectual. 

When Ian hears about a plane crash in Honolulu, he's surprised. After all, he was called in with a bunch of fellow authors to dream up terrorist scenarios supposedly for the CIA. This one was one of his scenarios. And when he contacts his fellow conference attendees, he finds that all of them are dead in what look like ordinary deaths. It makes him rethink a few accidents that he's had lately including the one that has given him a broken arm.

Ian is on an author tour with Margo French as his assigned driver. She's a dog walker and aspiring singer-songwriter. When he says that they need to run and hide, Margo is thinking that his character has gone to his head. At least, she thinks so until they are almost mown down by a self-driving car.

Ian uses the things he has learned doing his research for his Straker books to help them elude their pursuers. But the villain is a corporation that wants to take over the CIA and they have many more resources than Ian and Margo do. What they don't have is Ian's imagination.

Ian and Margo make their way to the California/Nevada desert where an actor Ian wrote for in his television days has decided to live. Ronnie Mancuso has mental health issues which have spawned conspiracy theories. But he's the right guy to help Ian and Margo disappear and get away from agents of the corporation. 

The story is filled with action and humor. Most of the humor comes from Margo's attitude toward all the things that are happening around them. Of course, Ronnie who played a police detective who was half-man and half-plant and really believes his role added substantial humor too. 

I really enjoyed this first in a series mystery and look forward to reading more. 

I bought this one for my Kindle and added the audiobook. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Perfect Shot by Steve Urszenyi

Perfect Shot
Author: Steve Urszenyi
Series: Special Agent Alexandra Martel
Publication: Minotaur Books (November 14, 2023)

Description: A former Army sniper must fall back on her Special Ops skills when a friend’s death uncovers a global nuclear threat, in Perfect Shot, the first in an electrifying new series featuring Special Agent Alexandra Martel.

Special Agent Alexandra Martel has put her days on the battlefield behind her. Charming and disarming, relentless and lethal, she earned a reputation as one of the most renowned and decorated Army snipers in the service before stepping away. But when Alex, now an FBI special agent on loan to Interpol, learns that an old friend, an MI5 officer, has been killed under mysterious circumstances, she’s pulled back into the dangerous world she left behind: a world where some people fear her, some want to recruit her, and everyone seems to want her dead.

Following a trail of clues left behind by the dead woman, Alex pieces together a terrifying conspiracy that only escalates when a nuclear warhead goes missing. Dodging death at every turn, she reluctantly joins forces with a CIA officer, but he has plans of his own for her―and will stop at nothing to achieve them.

Chasing the truth through the streets of London and bustling Turkish markets to the underbelly of Paris, Alex is unrelenting in her pursuit of justice. But as the clock ticks down and the world edges closer to doom, she must fall back on her Special Ops skills to stop the unthinkable. She thought her life as a sniper was over―but with stakes this high, she must use whatever means necessary to render the world safe.

My Thoughts: Tom Clancy meets James Bond in this thriller. Special Agent Alexandra Martel has had a storied career first as an Army medic and then a sniper as she served in Afghanistan. A desire to be home more led her to the FBI and the FBI loaned her to Interpol. When a friend she met at a law enforcement conference sends a strange message and then is found dead, Alex decides to look into the death. 

As she searches through what her friend sent her, she uncovers a plot to set off a nuclear bomb at a Paris Peace Conference. She also discovers that her friend was a Russian sleeper agent who has finally come upon something that she can't tolerate. And the Russians know about her and want to stop her before she can disrupt their plot. 

The story travels from Brussels to Paris to Turkey and back again. The descriptions of the various places were well drawn, and the action was intense.

The story was filled with "technobabble" with detailed descriptions of all sorts weapons. It was also filled with lots of technological spying which was also described in great detail. And it was packed with political maneuvering as she deals with the various agencies she works with. Alex was a more humanized James Bond who knows herself and her purpose and suffers from some flashbacks to earlier actions. 

This one is the start of a series. 

Favorite Quote:

"So, if the Air Force can't get in, does that mean that someone -- or something -- is blocking the attempt?"

"We don't know," said Colonel Mendez. "It's possible the system was already triggered, and we aren't able to establish a connection precisely because the weapon's fail-safe system has kicked in and already self-destructed."

"Or," said Alex, trying to contain her growing concern, "we have a fully functioning thermonuclear bomb out there under someone else's control."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Killers of a Certain Age
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Publication: Berkley (September 6, 2022)

Description: Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon.

They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire – it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death

Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age.

My Thoughts: This story tells about four women, aged sixty, who have worked for a clandestine organization for forty years. It is time for them to retire, but things don't go smoothly. It seems that their organization would prefer to have them dead rather than pay their retirement pensions.

Billie, Mary Anne, Helen and Natalie have been invited on a cruise to celebrate their retirement only to learn that another assassin is there to blow up the ship and see that they don't survive.

This story is told by Billie who was recruited after a college protest in 1979. She had been raised by a single mother always looking for love until she abandoned Billie in a Mall pizza place when she was twelve. Thereafter, she spent her teens in foster care and on the streets. She was recruited by appealing to her sense of justice.

The four women who were all trained by the same woman who was herself a spy during World War II have a variety of skills. Flashbacks tell about some of their past missions and introduce the current Board of Directors, all of whom has interacted with the women on past missions.

When they learn that kill orders have been issued for them, they decide that their only hope of survival is to kill the current Board of Directors while determining who instigated the orders for their deaths. The story was filled with action and had a number of creative ways to kill their targets. It also did a nice job of introducing each of the four women and their lives. With the focus on Billie, I wished I could have learned more about each of the other women though there was enough to make their actions understandable. 

I liked this story very much. It was a different take on spy thrillers just because the main characters were women with forty years of experience in their job. I recommend this book highly.

Favorite Quote:

"I hope you had a wonderful arrival dinner!" she enthused. "I have a special treat for you!"

She beckoned us to follow her, and Mary Alice fell into step next to me. "Ten bucks says that child used to twirl a baton."

"Flaming," I agreed.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.