Agent 6 - Tom Rob Smith

I hate to say this was my least favorite of the Leo Demidov books but it was although I may be more sad that the series has ended here. I really liked Leo and Raisa and their struggles to do what was right governed by a regime that cared little for the morality of the system within which its citizens operate. This book starts with their meeting and slingshots way into the future as Leo struggles to find out the real facts behind a family tragedy.

It's hard to see in Agent 6 that Leo has become powerless to move on and become a shell of himself. While certainly lacking autonomy and power in the second book, here Leo lacks the social capital to even find out simple facts behind a murder. And so he spirals down and into the back streets and opium haze of pre-war Afghanistan.

The breadth of time and space the novel takes up may have shot too wide. Leo is jolted out of complacency in Afghanistan by a threat to a police trainee and a civilian child. He is uncomfortable with the lessons he has inadvertently passed on to his trainee and by a thin margin, is able to broker a deal with Mujahideen to get them all out of the country. Once in America, Leo is unable to give up the thread of his long ago abandoned investigation. But this is really just the denouement of a character we first met callously telling a colleague to "get over" the murder of his child and then ruthlessly hunting down a man whose guilt was less than apparent.

Whereas Leo first loved nothing and was strictly obedient to doctrine, he comes to lose almost everything to be the man the people he loved wanted him to be. Was his life richer for it? He certainly suffered more but he also became an extremely principled person and at least I'd like to think, that has a value above measure.

3.5/5 Stars.

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators - Ronan Farrow

If I didn't know Ronan Farrow was a real person I would swear this was a work of brilliant fiction. That Catch and Kill involves real people and the lengths to which slime balls go to protect their reputation and their brotherhood of slime balls is shocking, disheartening, maddening, and disgusting.

Apparently the fact that Harvey Weinstein was a misogynistic, predatory a-hole was a well known "secret" in Hollywood (that's code for if someone makes enough money they can really get away with anything). Typically he would walk over women, assault women, be pushy with women, and anyone who got sideways of his endeavors found themselves without movie scripts, production offers, etc. But because he held the purse strings, employed people, promoted people, created stars, people looked the other way. People who couldn't were shown the exit door and asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. This isn't right. It's certainly not justice.

So when Ronan started following a lead that became a story that became an avalanche, an entire system was put into motion to try to stop the reporting. Men whose conscience balked under the weight of similar allegations, organizations worried about their own internal practices around predators. This led to international security firms following Ronan to out his sources (sorry Jonathan that you were too boring to follow, it's adorable).

I deeply appreciated the vulnerability and empathy Ronan showed throughout and that he didn't shy away how the reporting affected him as a person. He focused on sources and facts to remain objective but also let himself feel the way he felt when the facts and evidence laid bare the truth. Our country is better for this kind of reporting, and for Harvey Weinstein and the men (and women) who believed their power, prestige, and money would allow them to get away with this heinous behavior to be held accountable.

Also, I would read any book that has a cameo by Pundit. 

5/5 Stars. 

Blackout - Mira Grant

I'll start by saying that I probably should have allowed more time to pass between reading the prior book (Deadline - you can read that review here) and this one. I was a little burnt out by the repetitive nature of some of the statements made by the narrators and I understood the conspiracy laid out so I didn't need it needlessly detailed in some parts.

Book 2 ended on such a cliffhanger that I wanted to get right into this one, but that ended up feeling more like reading an exceedingly long book, rather than reading two separate stories and my experience as a reader suffered for it. 

Things that hadn't bothered me in the first book started to bother me in this one. First, both Shaun and Georgia needlessly repeat themes and statements that are no necessary. There is also large parts of unnecessary dialogue between the news team characters at given points. If this were a first book, this would make sense to establish the report between the characters, but at this point it just feels like overkill and unnecessarily lengthened the book. 

In this installment, Shaun and Georgia Mason (the clone version) are reunited and work together to uncover the final chapter in the wide-ranging government conspiracy that is causing people to be killed in the continuing battle against the Kellis-Amberly virus. The story ropes back in President Peter Ryman and Vice President Richard Cousins, both notably absent from the second book in the series. Their involvement shows just how high the conspiracy goes. 

In the end, Georgia and Shaun must decide how much truth they can reveal and whether the world is ready for it. The conspiracy angle is a bit diminished when you consider this is a world-wide issue and even though the United States Centers for Disease Control may be committing crimes and covering up truths, it's hard to swallow that the rest of the world may be playing by the USA's rules and not uncovering these truths on their own.

In any case, the book does manage to wrap up the entire thing nicely, without being overly saccharine or too convenient. The final book just missed some of the freshness and pop that existed in the first book, even if it was a solid ending to the trilogy.

3/5 Stars.

Deadline - Mira Grant

Meticulously researched and well written. Mira Grant's second installment in the Newsflesh Trilogy doesn't disappoint, even if it does feel sometimes like it's the middle book treading water until the ultimate finish. 

Deadline continues where Feed left off (you can read that review here) - Georgia and Shaun Mason, brother and sister news team followed the presidential campaign of Senator Ryman to the nominating convention, only to have Georgia killed by a vast conspiracy which included Gov. Tate, the other possible candidate. Tate dies at the hands of Shaun without giving up the head of the conspiracy and Shaun vows to track down those responsible for Georgia's death. You see, a freak accident explained in exquisite detail in the first book, caused two viruses to combine to create a super virus that redirects the body'd energy into becoming a shambling infected vessel determined to infect or eat any living thing. Yay. 

Deadline picks up a year after those events with Shaun as our new narrator. I have to say, I miss Georgia. She was analytical and wry. Shaun's great, but he's no substitute, the fact that Mira Grant has written him to be aware of this drawback is next level aware and I appreciated it. To deal with the trauma of losing his sister, the only person he's ever loved, he latches onto a non-corporeal (not literally) Georgia, who speaks to only him. The rest of the team just rolls with it and it only occasionally becomes a concern. 

In any case, the conspiracy starts rolling once a CDC doctor winds up at Shaun's Oakland apartment, claiming she has some secret information to deliver. While she is delivering the message, a massive outbreak occurs and the team is running for their lives to evacuate the city before it is "cleansed" in a massive fireball. The information the doctor shares is that individuals with dormant virus conditions are dying at disproportionate rates to the rest of the country. In this world that means these people, like Georgia, are being targeted. 

In his quest for answers, Shaun unveils even more secrets that dwell right in the heart of the CDC. But a massive outbreak suggests a terrifying evolution in the disease. The action in this book was more subdued than the last time as the characters aren't moving around quite as much and the book lulled in moments where the main focus was setting up events for the conclusion in book three, but the book took the time to lay it all out and I'm sure book three is going to be a great conclusion. 

It's hard for the second book in a trilogy to outshine it's predecessor and Deadline is no exception. But the cliffhanger ending and the revelations added excitement of their own and made Deadline an enjoyable read. This is a must-read for anyone into the Zombie genre.

4/5 Stars. 

The Girl in the Spider's Web - David Lagercrantz

I was concerned that Lagercrantz wouldn't be able to capture the odd mix of action and exposé that marked the earlier Millennium books. I was thankfully wrong. 

This book finds us with our two friends, Lisbeth Salander and Mikhail Blomkvist again on the hunt of a story. Mikhail's little magazine has suffered a bit since its last scoop and is now partly owned by a larger media corporation which has threatened to show Mikhail the door. He's lost his stuff. His writing is tired and so is Mikhail. 

Lisbeth, however, has been busy. She's been trying to track down her erstwhile sister Camille, who she suspects has picked up where their horrible father left off. In order to get the information she needs, she sneaks into the NSA to find get the dirt on her sister's organization. In the meantime, there is a Swedish computer genius and his autistic son Franz and August Balder, who get caught in a struggle for Franz's technology. Franz is murdered while Mikhail is on his way to interview him. 

And if that was then end of the conspiracy, this would be a poor Millennium novel indeed. It goes deeper than that and of course Salander is in the mix on it all as well. Mikhail and Lisbeth maintain a loose affiliation and friendship and it's nice to see them work together again. 

There were a couple sections of exposition that may seem slow, but that again is also characteristic of this series. This is a solid action/conspiracy drama, perfect for fans of the first three novels. I can't write any more without giving away the goose.

3.5/5 Stars.