January 6, 2020
In Bentley’s predictable debut and series launch, Matt Drake, an agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency, goes off the rails after a disastrous mission to Aleppo, Syria, that leaves him with PTSD, a buddy horrifically wounded, and a Syrian family dead. He has zero interest in returning to Syria, but of course he does, to undertake an important mission: extracting a chemical weapons expert who is believed to have created a particularly effective new poison. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., just a few days before the presidential election, a covert CIA-led mission goes sideways, and President Jorge Gonzales’s chief of staff, Peter Redman, doesn’t want bad headlines to hurt Gonzales’s reelection chances. Redman’s subsequent damage control interferes with Drake’s mission. Caught in the middle, Drake does exactly what the reader expects and soldiers on with a mixture of machismo and jingoism. The exciting combat scenes and the military-technology detail will appeal to Tom Clancy fans. However, Bentley will have to come up with a more original plot next time if he’s to compete in the crowded military action genre. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Agency.
January 15, 2020
A spy dealing with personal trauma is called back into action to stop the use of a dangerous chemical weapon. A former Army helicopter pilot and FBI special agent, Bentley delivers his debut novel with the introduction of Defense Intelligence Agent Matt Drake. After an op in Syria went sideways and his best friend was maimed, Drake walked away carrying heavy emotional baggage. Haunted by those he couldn't save and in self-imposed exile from his wife in order to protect her, Matt wants nothing to do with his old life at the Defense Intelligence Agency. But when he's brought back under duress to help stop terrorists from using an untraceable chemical weapon against Americans, Drake feels a lurking sense of obligation, and before he knows it he's back on duty. The seeming purity of Drake's call to serve is contrasted with the petty political infighting within the highest reaches of government. A chief of staff for the president is angling to jam a CIA director who has political ambitions of her own, and Drake's mission falls right in the middle of this elaborate political scheme. While the flow of the story seems most natural during the shoot'em-up action scenes, this is a novel with an emotional core, and that may be what makes it stand out from other thrillers of a similar ilk. A page-turner with the kind of small details that lend unquestionable authenticity.
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Starred review from February 15, 2020
Seasoned thriller readers will scan the opening pages of this outstanding debut and know right away where the next couple hundred pages are going. Most likely, though, they'll be happy to go along for what is a hell of a ride. Hero Matt Drake is created from a familiar template: a damaged intelligence agent seeking to recover from a disaster. He'd promised to protect a young family in Syria but couldn't, and the face of the beautiful dead daughter, with her intoxicating grin and raven curls, forever floats before him and seems about to speak. Drake's chance at redemption comes when he's sent back to Syria to extract an ISIS-connected Pakistani scientist who's concocted a killer chemical weapon. After the novel's only misstep?a long section detailing the infighting among the U.S. president's advisors (well done but not what we bought a ticket for)?the action kicks into overdrive. It's stunning, with a way of making an insider of the reader, bringing us along on a five-mile parachute drop, letting us pre-breathe oxygen (purging the blood of nitrogen), juggle toggles, and avoid rocket fire. Rousing fights follow, along with betrayals and torture. And education, as when Drake explains, as clearly as any analyst, the real appeal of ISIS. More, please.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)