Yet another mystery that was good for a quick summer read on the train. Doesn't take much thought to read it and is quick. I've never read a Paul Madriani novel before, and probably wouldn't again, unless it was left in a hotel room. I'm not one for legal dramas and this one dragged. Lots of technical detail, which again, may be my disinterest. ( )

This is a "clear your calendar and prepare to stay up all night" thriller. Although Martini plants numerous clues, and the reader thinks he knows what's happening, the plot twists are numerous, and aggregate into an incredible story featuring the Cuban missile crisis, the cold war, Homeland Security, the Columbian and Mexican drug cartels, a beautiful model from Costa Rica, Guantanamo bay detainees, missing nuclear weapons, and a bunch of lawyers in San Diego California trying to prosecute or defend the beautiful model when she is accused of killing a local coin dealer (who turns out to be a retired CIA operative).

Anyone else trying to tie all that together would have left us in a sinking morass of confusion. Martini pulls it into a breath-taking fast-paced, very scary (because it's so believable) story with an acceptable resolution.

I've read several others in the Paul Madriani series. I think this is definitely the best. ( )

This book is 438 pages of action sandwiched between cold blooded murder and bomb explosion diversion. This story begins with a young woman accused of murder and ends with her grandfather's death. This plot had a multitude of diversions - sub plots, characters, bomb assembly, terrorists from the Middle East with a Cuban connection, Russian bomb specialist - with locales of Cuba, Costa Rica, Mexico, and San Diego involved. Seemingly, all the right ingredients to keep a reader up all night.

However, although the book is jam packed with all these page turning elements, I was left feeling empty. The characters all had development potential, but this potential was never flushed out. Every character seemed to merely be inserted for particular events then basically forgotten. I struggled, hoping to find one character that was not a mere shell of a person. The exciting locales were only touched on. A sense of having visited for a day or a hint of a cultural interest never surfaced.

The book seemed to be written with a checklist on hand, adding the ingredients but not cooking them up. Rather than being thoroughly thrilled, I was thoroughly bored. ( )

If you like page turners this is as good as most. While I usually do not read this genre I found the pace of the book to be satisfying and would definitely reccommend this book for a long flight as a good alternative to an action movie. ( )

Ugh. Greatly disliked. Too much detail, no character development, too many characters, too much jumping around, and boring. Oh, and an unsatisfactory ending. I am so glad I got this book for free. Blech. I like thrillers, but this one wasn't thrilling at all. ( )