Tim Tigner

Coercion is a very good spy/thriller set in 1990 during the Gorbachev/Perestroika Russian years. “Knyaz” is a super secret organization within the KGB that wants to gain control by ridding the country of Gorbachev and giving Russia its own version of Perestroika. With Vasily Karpov, a KGB General, as its primary leader (and his son, Victor, as another), Knyaz gains control over those who can help them attain their goal. They infiltrate American industry to gain advantages over it and show more surpass it in international economic competition. After all, this is where the new wars are being fought.

And this is where the Knyaz secret weapon comes in – the Peitho Pill. When injected into someone’s body (typically, the buttocks), the Peitho Pill is harmless by itself, but it can be remotely triggered, causing it to release its poison and instantly kill the target. People can live for years with this time-bomb implanted, leaving their loved ones living under total control of Knyaz. They know that if they do not do as they are told, their loved one will die. Corporate sabotage and industrial espionage are the standard for the relatives of those implanted with the Peitho Pill. It’s all about complete control and it’s disconcerting for everyone. It’s truly one of the more original and evil weapons I’ve come across in all of my years of reading thriller novels.

Alex and Frank Ferris are brothers, actually twins. Alex, the book’s protagonist, is a former US intelligence “agent” (aka spook) and Green Beret. Frank is a genius-level scientist who is working on a specific airplane engine that keeps being sabotaged. When Frank apparently commits suicide, Alex starts investigating his brother’s death. It doesn’t seem quite “right,” somehow. His investigations take him on a trip around the world to Siberia where he becomes very quickly acquainted with the Peitho Pill and Knyaz. Also, while in the US, we meet Karpov’s son, Victor, a man we quickly learn to love to hate. Turns out Alex has known Victor for a long while, but under an assumed American name. Victor is definitely not what and who he appears to be. But then, few are in this novel.

Most of the action takes place in Siberia and, let me tell you, the action is hot, even though the weather might be cold! Alex may have BEEN a Green Beret, but he apparently hasn’t lost his skills and his Knyaz “friends” have badly underestimated him. Alex will come face to face with Karpov, but Alex has an ace up his sleeve, and it’s a big one.

Some complaints though. First of all, I found the book slightly confusing at first and a little hard to get into. It took me awhile to just get into the book. However, after I basically forced myself to read through the first several chapters, it picked up and at that point, I couldn’t put the book down. It was that good. It was fast paced, was full of intrigue and tension, and had a lot of action. Another complaint, however, is that Alex seems to benefit from a lot of, well, good luck, excluding his torture scene by Karpov. He’s saved in the plane, he kills the Knyaz assassin pretty handily, he meets the one woman in town who is connected to Frank’s death and is also connected to Karpov, whom Alex ultimately is looking for. He gets into the right places pretty easily. Things seem to come to him so easily. Maybe that’s what happens when you’re an ex-spook, I don’t know. It just seemed really convenient and just a little contrived. However, the story was so good, I was willing to overlook all of these perceived flaws.

Coercion is a very good spy/thriller. I enjoyed it very much. What’s keeping it from being a five star book? Well, I guess it’s the aforementioned too many coincidences that tend to distract from rather than enhance the story. Also, the beginning of the novel could have been improved upon. Better editing, suggesting a fresher rewrite of the first few chapters, perhaps? Alex is a really good character. I kept thinking Jason Bourne. Not Bond, Bourne. I liked him. I’d like to read more books with him, but at the same time, I’m not sure making a series featuring him is a great idea. Too many authors are creating series’ these days featuring great characters and are having to make up impossible scenarios that don’t seem remotely realistic. I don’t want to see that happen to this character (not that this seemed realistic). All in all, four strong stars and definitely recommended. show less

When an investor and a group of scientists discover a way to stop aging, rather than marketing their creation, they decide to keep it to themselves, trying to outwit time. However, as you might expect, this comes with problems of its own. In the meantime, an ex-CIA agent stumbles upon the murder of his college friend, and takes on an investigation of his own in order to figure out why his friend was murdered.

I wasn't sure what to expect after reading mixed reviews on this book. But the plot show more sounded intriguing. And overall, I liked it. It's a quick read with short chapters -- basically a thriller. And as thrillers go, it had its share of some some unrealistic plot twists, but I've come to expect that. The ending was wrapped up a little too tidily, in my opinion, but overall it was a decent read from an author I was previously unfamiliar with. show less

As far as I remember, this is the first time I've read this author. His style reminds me a bit of David Baldacci's.

Pushing Brilliance as a title has a couple meanings: one, of course, being that there is a group recruiting people to use a new drug named brillyanc that enhances cognitive skills and makes the user pretty much the smartest person in the room. Another meaning is the more figurative in that many of the characters are trying to outwit others by using their brains (or mental show more brillance) to do so.

WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD (READ ON AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION)
****

The Achilles family have met up to celebrate the father's retirement and to take a family cruise on a yacht. Kyle goes home with a server from the retirement dinner and thus is the only family member spared from carbon monoxide poisoning. His brother's fiancee also survives.

Kyle is implicated in their deaths. A former spy, Kyle's friends help him escape his cell so he can team up with Katya (the fiancee) to investigate who really killed his family and why.

Kyle and Katya discover the existence of brillyanc and what it does. They also suss out the side effect. (It's unclear if a strain was ever developed that avoided the side effect. Grigori says yes, but Kyle says no.)

And just when you think the novel is over, there's still the matter of the Russians that Kyle feels he has to solve which turns into a bioweapon designed to debilitate POTUS and allow the brillyanc-taking VP to move up the ladder.

So . . . it's unclear to me what happened to the charges against Kyle. There is evidence that he was not the killer so I think he was cleared of that, but he didn't show up to court when he was supposed to, so perhaps other charges could be put on him. The book made it sound like his bail was forfeited (though honestly, you'd think with all he did that someone could put pressure on the court/DA to get him most if not all of the money back).

There's also an unanswered question of where the relationship with Kyle and Katya will end up. Both are interested in each other, but Katya doesn't yet seem ready to move on.

This leaves Kyle with a dilemma--does he follow his heart and be near Katya or does he take the job he's offered at the end of the book (which might take him away from Katya). Or perhaps he can do both since the job seems to be a "once in a while, when the President needs you" kind of offer--so perhaps he could be with Katya so long as the President has a way to reach him.

This was well written so I would probably read more in this series. show less

Great premise. Good execution. I enjoyed reading this book. I'm the kind who can never solve the mystery, but I did see this one coming. The set up was done well but 20 years into the exercise it was kinda disappointing. These people were incredibly smart and fabulously wealthy but they came up with.... this?

Instead of a gaze into the mystery of our humanity, I saw clumsy hand waving that didn't hide the fact that there was no magic happening. I think if the author spent more armchair time show more with the philosophical questions he posed the result might not have felt like it was a less satisfying Dan Brown knockoff. show less