The Madness of Crowds

Finished February 11

The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny

I always enjoy Penny's books, but this one I could hardly put down. It is the 17th book in the series featuring Armand Gamache. There was so much going on, and she brought in so many issues and bits of history. The novel takes place in the spring of 2022, but was written before then, so it has vaccines working better than they actually did and life more or less returned to normal. That doesn't mean that the pandemic didn't have lasting effects though, and Penny has brought in several issues related to it, including the stress on the healthcare system and the situations that occurred at so many retirement and nursing homes. I think these made it a more emotional read for me as they are still unresolved issues.

She also dug into some historical events around health and government oversight that are particularly troubling, and made them key to the story. This element also brought Reine-Marie in to the story in an active way, helping to uncover some of the historical records from this time. This connected with both characters in the present day, and the question of ethics that runs through the book. 

A lot of the action of the novel takes place in Three Pines, although not all of it. and this means that we see a lot of the residents of the village and learn how they coped with this difficult time. 

Gamache has the responsibility for security for a last minute speaker at a small university. The speaker has controversial ideas and some of the previous speaking arrangements have gone viral, and the event is more chaotic than expected, even with Gamache's preparation. As he digs deeper into the events and the people involved, he finds many people with reasons to react violently. The issues that arise here have a very personal link to Gamache and his family, which reverberate throughout the book. I think this is the book in the series that has both captured me the most thoroughly and haunted me afterward the most. 

Close Call

Finished August 12
Close Call by Stella Rimington

This novel is the eighth book in a series featuring MI5 agent Liz Carlyle. I've also read the first one, At Risk. Here she works with MI6, the CIA, and the French intelligence authorities. Liz is in a relationship that is starting to get serious with Martin Seurat, one of her French counterparts at the DGSE. He has started talking about retiring and going into private security.
The story here starts in the Syria, where an American agent has a close call while infiltrating rebel groups. He is transferred to Yemen to try and move a rumour forward to discover whether it has merit in intelligence with a government minister.
Liz is just back from vacation with Martin when she is brought up to date by her deputy Peggy Kinsolving. This includes a "watching brief" on a possible smuggled arms shipment. This involves MI6 as well as the CIA. The first thing to come up on this brief is news of a meeting in Paris. The French are running the show there of course, with other countries involved, but a young agent makes a move that unnerves those meeting and they lose contact with the men. Photos of them however bring an unexpected surprise. One of the men is a former French agent, who got in trouble and has now moved to the side of the bad guys, including running arms. They are surprised he risked his home ground of Europe, but it does make it more likely that they can nab him and try to learn more.
Liz soon finds that the drop of arms is expected to be in England, in Cheshire. When she reaches out to Special Branch to find out more about the man they suspect of being involved she learns that a man from her past is also now in Cheshire. They didn't part on good terms, and Liz isn't sure that he can be trusted based on her past experience, so she explores different routes of gathering intelligence and mounting surveillance. The man in Cheshire has been suspected of human trafficking as part of a club and prostitution service he runs, but arms would be a new venture for him.
I enjoyed the action here and also like when I learn more about the personal lives of the main characters, to humanize them more. There are several things going on here, but they all relate to each other, and offer a fast-moving plot.
The author used to head up MI5 and so writes from experience and knowledge of the real world espionage services.

The Paris Diversion

Finished May 2
The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone

This book continues the story begun with The Expats. Now living in Paris, intelligence agent Kate is running her own team, but is increasingly feeling that she isn't measuring up. And her husband Dexter is acting like he has secrets again, which didn't pan out well for them last time.
Kate is trying to fit in more with the expat community here, but she's way overdue to host, and so tonight she is having a bunch of people over for dinner. After dropping the kids at school, she goes to the market and gets the ingredients for the meal, but that is when things start to go wrong.
First she hears about a bomb scare at Gare de Lyon, and then there is the suicide bomber at the Louvre. What is happening and why didn't she hear any noises about it beforehand?
Dexter has risked a bigger chunk of their money than he usually does on one deal. But this time it is personal, and he's sure he's done his homework. But as things progress he begins to wonder and worry. And when Kate finds out even part of what he's done, she worries too, and starts to put the pieces together. He's right, it is personal. Very personal.
I love Kate just as much as I did in The Expats, and was rooting for her throughout. There's a lot going on here, and you can see her professional know-how come to the fore. I loved the scene where she played the knight in shining armor rescuing the damsel, nabbing Dexter and taking off with him. I loved the whole story around the Lego. And I loved her human worry and caring.
I also loved the smaller stories. The irony of the sniper's story really got me. The greed of the plotters angered me. Unputdownable.

Need To Know

Finished January 25
Need to Know by Karen Cleveland

This spy thriller has CIA analyst Vivian Miller at the verge of a breakthrough to a Russian sleeper cell. But when one of the faces in the cell is that of her own husband, she freezes, unable to process what this means.
Vivan met her husband Matt just as she was beginning her career. They now have four children, including one with special medical needs. Many decisions have been made during the course of her career, that brought her to this dilemma. Her choice to join the unit looking at Russia. Her choice to take only a short maternity leave after her first child. Her choice to have Matt stay home with the kids to keep her better health coverage. Their recent move to a bigger house in a better neighbourhood that stretched their finances. She can't afford to turn in Matt, but how can she not.
As the story develops, I saw her missteps, and her courage to not go past a certain point in her ethical dilemma. I saw how she got herself into an even more difficult situation that she was in to begin with. This is a story of espionage that I hadn't imagined before, and one that kept me reading.
And an ending I won't easily forget.

The Accident

Finished April 11
The Accident by Chris Pavone, read by Mozhan Marno

This thriller has a couple of the main characters from Pavone's earlier book The Expats, Kate and Hayden is more minor roles in this new novel. Isabel Reed is a New York literary agent, and recently a manuscript was delivered to her office that seems to have potentially huge prospects. The title of the manuscript is The Accident and the author is listed as Anonymous. The story it tells is the unauthorized memoir of Charlie Wolfe, head of an international media organization, and a man who now has his eye on a political career. The book would cause that hope to die, and raise serious questions about Charlie's company. The reader is exposed gradually to the contents of this biography by other people reading the manuscript. Another source of information about its contents is the extraordinary length someone is going to to ensure the book doesn't get published. It is Hayden who takes the lead on that endeavour, first in Europe tailing the supposed author, and then in the United States once the biography reaches Isabel. Hayden is a Berlin CIA operative, but this case is black ops, completely off the books, and we gradually understand why. Hayden will stop at nothing to prevent publication, and that includes murder. As people with possession or knowledge of the manuscript are followed and eliminated the race to see the real story on Wolfe come out grows ever more precarious.
Isabel suspects who the author really is, but the man she is thinking of is dead. Or is he? We also occasionally see the real author and realize his role in the story and his motivations. He has made a lot of plans to get this story out, but will they be enough?
This novel also gives an inside look at the publishing industry with literary agents, editors, publishers, and even a subsidiary rights agent playing roles. The depth of the characters here add real substance to the book, and give us insight into the story as it develops.
A read that is hard to put down.

Audio Thriller

Finished July 23
The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer, read by David Pittu
This is the second in the series that started with The Tourist. This continues more or less where that book left off. Milo Weaver is still experiencing some fallout with his wife from his recent adventures, and feeling less than optimistic signs up again as a Tourist. The jobs he is given seem very easy and he think they are being careful to give him jobs that they can watch the outcome of easily. Then he is given a job that he can't stomach, and he agonizes over what to do. Again he enlists the help of another to find a solution that he can live with, but even that goes wrong for him.
There is trouble within the Tourism department and suspicions grow when information seems to be leaked to others. Milo finds himself becoming involved again despite his best intentions.
This book will keep you on the edge of your seat and the plot is a nice twisty one. A great read.

Spy Novel

Finished April 20
The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer
Great story, good barely put it down.
Milo Weaver was a "tourist" for the CIA, a blackops agent last travelling under the identity Charles Alexander. The job became unbearable for him and six years back he quit, and took a desk job analyzing information for the agency.
He is now married with a daughter, and a librarian wife. He has spent a good deal of his time lately tracking an assassin known as The Tiger, and when he finally tracks him down, is very surprised at what he finds. He is asked to do some fieldwork again, and while resistant, gives in to help a good friend out of a jam. But this new work leads to discoveries about old cases and he ends up looking for help from those he never thought he'd ask.
Things move along quickly here with never a dull moment, and I got very caught up in the plot.
I think this would make a great action movie, and I understand that George Clooney has already taken an option out on it.

Thriller

Finished October 31
Rules of Deception by Christopher Reich, read by Paul Michael
This thriller, set in Switzerland, brings in some interesting themes. We have a main character Jonathan Ransom, who is a doctor working with Doctors without Borders. As he climbs in the Alps with his wife, who also works for the organization, she is hurt and later found dead in a crevasse.
The following day, Ransom receives an envelope addressed to his wife with baggage claim tickets inside. When he goes to claim the bags to satisfy his curiosity, he becomes intimately involved in a high-stakes intrigue involving murder.
As he struggles to keep a step ahead of the police who are now looking for him, he follows the clues in his wife's possessions to try to find out just what his wife was involved in, and to clear himself of any crimes.
We have involvement not only from the Swiss police, but also from U.S. intelligence agents, including conspiracies against conspiracies. The outcome of the events could mean a new large-scale war.
The action is fast, and Jonathan is a sympathetic character. This book will keep you engaged and wanting to find where the action is taking you.

Fast-Paced Thriller

Finished October 11
Collision by Jeff Abbott
Set mostly in Texas, this thriller involves ex-CIA men, men in training for a dangerous life, and government contractors. The world of government contracting in the Middle East can be a lucrative one, and Ben Forsberg is a consultant that helps security businesses to get these contracts. Suddenly Ben finds himself a suspect in a case where a contract killer has made a hit.
Pilgrim is an ex-CIA man, now part of a deep secret government group trying to take action against injustices. He also becomes involved in the same incident as Ben. When the two finally meet up, they find they both have information vital to their survival and begin working together. There is tons of action here, danger, and lots of death. The plot is very active and yet we still get a sense of who the characters are and what is important to them.
A great thriller, with lots of twists and turns, good characters and a great story.

Audio Thriller

Finished March 14
Prepared for Rage by Dana Stabenow, read by Lorelei King
I was already familiar with Stabenow's Kate Shugak mystery series, set in Alaska, but this thriller is a completely different sort of book. There is tons of action, a fair bit of violence, global politics, and, of course, sex. We follow several characters here: Coast Guard captain Cal Schuyler; NASA astronaut Kenai Munro; CIA strategist Patrick Chisum; and Pakistani terrorist Akil, also known as Isa. Cal is captain of the Coast Guard cutter which is currently patrolling the Caribbean and will be the lead ship in the security around the launch of the space shuttle Endeavor that Kenai will be on. Patrick is desperately trying to find out Isa's real identity and figure out what he is planning, and uses resources outside his usual government one to try to get this information. Isa, meanwhile is single-mindedly moving toward his ultimate goal, taking advantage of opportunities that arise and keeping his plans tight to his chest until the last possible moment. This book keeps things moving and there is never a dull moment. It was a great listen!