This book was recommended by another author as a good spy novel, and after reading it I agree.
It has all the things you’d expect in a spy novel, and I imagine that people who read a lot from this genre might complain that there isn’t a lot of new ground being broken. But for me as a neophyte I enjoyed it for what it was. The pacing could have been improved – sometimes the writer got all caught up in the details and backstory and neglected to move the plot forward. However other times the author skillfully moved the story along to skip over the boring bits.
There are a lot of exotic locations, many of them written with details and attention that make me think that the author has been there. The characters are entertaining, although sometimes a little predictable. Bad guy is 100% bad, good guy is clearly good.
One thing I liked about the book was at the end of each chapter a quick recipe is given for a meal that was enjoyed in that section of the book. It was a great idea and I can’t wait to cook some of the dishes, but with so many chapters you started to see where the characters had to eat a meal soon so that a recipe could be included.
I think that this is the first in a trilogy, and there was enough in this book that I liked to move on to the next book later on. There is also a movie (starring Jennifer Lawrence) so I’ll have to check it out sometime, too.
Next I am reading Kalyna the Soothsayer by Elijah Kinch Spector.
