A drama around a lawsuit and cia involvement in the Middle East. It more or less comes together but I was left with a few questions. ( )

Touch of the Frederick Forsyths here. Similar detailed style. Clever plotting that allows the surprises to work. However, so much of what is going on in secret places is obscured even when you finish. A less than perfect resolution for me. ( )

Elizabeth is used to a high working load and stress, but this situation might bring her down. One of her young lawyer’s phones has been pickpocketed and he had neither security nor lock on it – but highly sensitive data on their current case. The best woman to take care of such a mess is Valencia Walker, former CIA officer and fixer of unsolvable cases. Indeed, she and her team can track the phone down immediately, but nevertheless, some blackmailing takes place. While Valencia sets everything in motion to stop any more harm from occurring, Elizabeth wonders why she is doing all this and if she shouldn’t just give all up, not knowing what else there is to come.

Patrick Hoffman’s mystery novel seems to be quite obvious from the start: a young and inexperienced lawyer who is threatened and therefore sells his boss. Then, some young and rather stupid men who are simply lucky and can seize a chance when it presents itself in front of them. Quite naturally, things become a bit complicated and tricky for Valencia and her team and then – you realise that this isn’t the point of it at all.

The story advances at quite some high pace with some parentheses every now and then which provide some more depth and insight and which slow the plot down a bit so that you can take a breath before it regains speed. The number of characters makes it a bit hard at times not to lose the thread, but overall, I can only conclude that the plot is brilliantly crafted and none of what happens could be foreseen from the beginning.

Even though it is clearly fiction and I don’t tend to be prone to believing any conspiracy theories about governments or any agencies carrying out secret missions in the homeland, there are some aspects of the story which at least made me ponder about the probability. That’s what I totally appreciate in a good novel: being hooked from the start and having something lingering in my mind after the last page. ( )

Hoffman has written a book that has so much going on it often led to confusion as I tried to follow all the strings, but then that is probably the way it goes when an unlocked cell phone carrying a lot of confidential information is stolen and makes its way through the hands of dirty lawyers, petty criminals and blackmailers. You sit there turning page, knowing that an explosion is about to happen. It is a page turner, alright. ( )

I did not enjoy it, in fact I felt very let down by it. I started to give it a 3 star rating and then reconsidered. I had looked forward to reading this book but I struggled to get end. It was gritty but seemed full of holes.

Usually I pick one of the characters that I like at the beginning of the book and I am in his or her corner cheering them on through all the twists and turns but not this I latched onto Elizabeth Carlisle but ended up not feeling anything for her. Rarely do I ever feel pity for a character, but I did this time. he was in an impossible situation but he did not realize that he had very bad problem and needed help with it. The very attractive Valerie Walker seemed cold and detached late in the book. Near the end of the book, I basically wanted to escape the story. Too many characters and I did not understand why some acted the way that they did.

The end came out from nowhere and seemed very strange.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher from a win on First Reads. ( )