Tag:

Action & Adventure

Review

Her Life in Ruins

by Brian Kenney

Catherine Saunders has quite a few balls in the air. In her final year of an elite graduate school (Stanford, archaeology) she’s nearly finished her dissertation, is entertaining several love interests, helps escort posh Stanford seniors on a dig—they unintentionally provide lots of humor, unlike the tech multimillionaire bros, who need plenty of attention. But then the unthinkable happens, and the subject of Catherine’s dissertation, a fascinating and important Mayan pot, disappears. To try to recover the object, Catherine pairs up with her research partner, as well as a possible love interest, and heads into the Yucatán in search of a master forger who may well have the original object…and could be trying to unload it. As the story line gears up, and as we ricochet all over the ancient Mayan world, readers are certain to fall in love with Catherine and her academic/rom com/espionage life.—Brian Kenney

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The Ghost City

by Jeff Ayers

A ruthless billionaire discovers a method of creating more durable concrete, courtesy of an ancient manuscript written by Marco Polo, in Pote’s terrific follow-up to Blood and Treasure. This building material will be necessary for the future construction boom if Shan Zhang and his company succeed. An ecological disaster in Vietnam dries up an entire river, and what treasure hunter and adventurer Ethan Cain doesn’t realize is that this event is only the beginning of Zhang’s plans. An ancient city under the Antarctic ice holds the key to a dangerous technology that Zhang sees as the method to reach his goals, and who cares if Antarctica’s ice disappears in the aftermath? Ethan, with the help of his on-and-off journalist girlfriend, Lana, must work together at the bottom of the world to save millions of lives, even if it means they won’t survive. Pote combines the adventure of a Clive Cussler novel, the special-ops missions of a Brad Thor thriller, and the tech focus of a Tom Clancy story to create a fun and engaging tale. The slow build intensifies, making the last half of the book so gripping that readers will get paper cuts from turning the pages so fast.—Jeff Ayers

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Icefall: The Rise of the Nine

by Jeff Ayers

The Nine, beings designated to protect Earth from potential destruction, have been asleep for centuries, but now the alarm has been activated. An alien ship crashed into Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier more than 150,000 years ago, and with global warming melting the ice, the vessel has become visible. Scientists investigating the alien craft awaken lifeforms that have been dormant all this time; they are not friendly and are now loose. Driving into a small town outside Juneau, a couple of state troopers discover that everyone except a baby has been brutally killed by what appears to be a new kind of weapon. There’s a reason for the alert to this possible threat to Earth, and the Nine will quickly discover that the aliens that have escaped from the ship are relentless, brutal, and unstoppable. Humanity doesn’t stand a chance. Newman and Land tell an intense story that demands to be read in one sitting. With great characters and a fun take on an alien invasion theme, this is John Carpenter’s The Thing meets The Terminator, with a dash of Michael Crichton if he didn’t care about body count.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Three Hitmen and a Baby

by Jeff Ayers

A missing brother, the Russian mob, a sick child, and a kill-order all add up to just another typical day in Hart’s latest thriller. The members of Assassins Anonymous all want to put their killing days behind them. Valencia leaves her toddler in the capable hands of Mark, Astrid, and Booker so she can try to find her brother. When the little girl gets a high fever, Astrid and Booker take her to the emergency room, triggering red flags at the hospital when they can’t answer simple questions such as, “What’s the girl’s last name?” The police get involved, and the protagonists find themselves running, avoiding every camera they can. While they are regretting not just giving the girl Tylenol, Mark visits a Russian mob boss, who demands that he either kill Astrid or they will kill a woman he used to love and her son. The boy doesn’t know that Mark is his father, and his former girlfriend has not seen or spoken to Mark since his attempt at recovery. Hart has crafted a solid action thriller with humor and emotion, and as the pages fly, the intensity increases. At three books in, with all of them terrific, give this one a shot.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Detour

by Jeff Ayers

BOOK OF THE WEEK

Police officer Ryan Crane rescues a billionaire from an assassination attempt, and that act of kindness gives him the chance of a lifetime in Rake and Hart’s first collaboration. Three astronauts, a lottery winner, and a scientist join Crane on the first trip to Saturn’s moon, Titan. The plan is for them to go around the moon, drop off a reconnaissance satellite, and come back. This two-year journey will demonstrate that it’s feasible to create a future settlement there rather than on Mars. The thought of being away for that long rips family-man Crane apart, but the money and the chance to make a difference have him agreeing to be part of the crew. Right before launch, the billionaire gives Crane an envelope and tells him not to open it, but to give it to him upon their return and not tell anyone on the crew that the package even exists. As the ship blasts off, Crane does not realize that he’s not the only one harboring a secret for a rich man with presidential aspirations. The book begins in a similar vein to Gene Wilder’s version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but then dives into Andy Weir and Rod Serling territory, making this a blast from the first page to the last. I’m a fan of Rob Hart’s novels and Jeff Rake’s television series Manifest, and Detour exceeded my already-high expectations.

© 2025 firstCLUE Reviews

 Sign up for our FREE newsletter!

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Article

Symphony of Monsters

by Willy Williams

Recently, First Lady Melania Trump announced that she was involved in negotiations with Russia for the return of eight Ukrainian children “displaced” during Russia’s 2023 invasion of Ukraine. She omitted that these children, along with thousands of others, had been abducted and taken to Russia to be adopted by Russian families, an act considered a war crime by the International Criminal Court. In Levy’s compelling, ripped-from-the-headlines thriller, one such victim is nine-year-old Valentyn. Precocious and mute, he lives with his mother, Veronika, and his 14-year-old sister, Lilya, in a small town in eastern Ukraine under Russian occupation. One day, two buses pull up outside his school. A quick-thinking teacher gets all the pupils to flee, except for Valentyn and a classmate who lingered too long in the bathroom. The two boys are transported to an orphanage in Crimea. There, Valentyn immediately plots his escape, while back home, Veronika and Lilya embark on separate, dangerous journeys to rescue him. Veronika heads to Kyiv to enlist the aid of Vital, a former patient and a skilled hacker. Unbeknownst to her mother, Lilya travels east to Crimea, accompanied only by a feral dog. Shifting among the different points of view, Levy builds gripping suspense while creating appealing, touching characters who deal bravely with insurmountable challenges without losing hope. If Levy’s hacker team, a group of nine cybercriminals featured in the author’s “9” series, displays unbelievable superpowers, readers will happily suspend their disbelief. As one team member reminds the others: “Save a child, and you save humanity.”

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Clive Cussler: The Iron Storm

by Henrietta Thornton

Brace yourself! This is a wild ride, and one that is just as enjoyable even if you’ve never read the late Cussler or Du Brul’s other Cussler titles. Readers are swept off to WWI Europe along with Isaac Bell, a detective with New York’s Van Dorn agency (created by Cussler, this group is like the Pinkertons on steroids). Bell is tasked by President Wilson with visiting the war-torn continent to gauge what it would be like for American men forced into battle there if the United States enters the fray. His journey turns into a series of chases and vicious confrontations, with he and comrades facing expected foes in the form of ruthless German soldiers, but also a less-expected force: anarchists who seek to use the cover of war to sow murderous chaos. Newcomers to Bell will want to go back to previous creations in this series as this is a wonderfully memorable character, with kindness and smarts to spare along with guts aplenty. Get this breakneck thriller on your list.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Veil

by Jeff Ayers

The disappearances seemed ordinary at first, with the police thinking those gone were runaways. Then more vanished, all at night, and curfews were implemented. John Calhoun, a teacher with a fractured family, has his son vanish after going around a corner. The wave continues, and the news and government have no answers. When John’s wife is taken in broad daylight by an invisible force that drags her away screaming, it’s clear that whatever is responsible won’t stop until every person on the planet is abducted. But who is responsible, and what is their motive? John and his 13-year-old daughter hunker down in their house and begin a survivalist lifestyle to avoid being next. At the same time, the neighborhood around them becomes a scene right out of the classic Twilight Zone episode The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. Janz, the pseudonym of Craig Shaeffer, uses his background and influences growing up to craft a tense and twisty thriller. The surprises come later in the story when John is forced to fight back by making sacrifices to save his family and the motivations behind the disappearances come to light. Janz takes the quintessential theme of how far you would go to protect your family to clever and horrifying heights.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Blood and Treasure

by Jeff Ayers

Pote’s debut thriller mixes the best of Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, and Dan Brown to weave an unputdownable tale. An incident on the International Space Station leads to more questions than answers and appears to be a prelude to gaining access to a satellite and its tech. Ethan Cain and his team take on big-pocket clients to find hidden treasures and artifacts. Their current client initially had them track down a scroll, and the information revealed on it leads to the location of an ancient weapon hidden for centuries. Evil people and entire governments want to utilize its capabilities, and whoever has this weapon could change the world. Cain learns the coordinates for this device’s underwater hidden location, but when trying to recover it, he watches as a space capsule slams into the water close to them. Inside is an unconscious woman, ejected from the event that occurred onboard the International Space Station. How did she survive, and does she also have an ulterior motive? Pote’s writing captures what makes fans of action-adventure and historical conspiracy thriller writers like Brad Thor and Steve Berry deliver every book. Make this a mandatory addition to your reading pile; you will treasure it forever.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Strangers in Time

by Jeff Ayers

The horrors of war are reflected in the lives of three people in Baldacci’s (A Calamity of Souls) latest. Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters lives with his grandmother in cramped conditions. She thinks Charlie is spending his weekdays in school, but he has quit and spends the day roaming the streets, stealing food and money to survive. His goal is to eventually enlist and fight the Germans for taking away his parents and his sense of safety. When he steals from Ignatius Oliver’s bookshop, rather than demanding punishment for Charlie, Ignatius treats him well, almost like a father would. Like Charlie, Ignatius is dealing with loss, but it’s his wife instead of his parents. When 15-year-old Molly Wakefield returns to London after spending time away from the big city and conflict, she is horrified to learn her parents did not survive the bombing. The three bond, throughout the war trusting and protecting one another from a relentless enemy and secrets they can’t see coming. Baldacci chronicles the story of this makeshift family brought together by circumstances out of their control and how they can survive and confront whatever awaits. The author does a terrific job of transporting the reader back in time to a tumultuous period of living in London, and readers will practically smell the smoke and feel surrounded by rubble from the shattered buildings. Another great tale from a grandmaster storyteller.

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail