agent – Freshly Printed

Book Description:

An FBI agent fights to stop a conspiracy to unleash a deadly virus on the world in this propulsive, exhilarating new thriller

The discovery of a deadly virus being smuggled across the border pits FBI Special Agent James Mason and his strike force against an unknown adversary hell-bent on humanity’s destruction. In a desperate effort to contain the pathogen, they launch a predawn raid, only to find that their enemy knows they’re coming…and it’s not about to be taken alive. An explosion rips through the building, killing the majority of Mason’s team, including his partner and mentor.

Tormented by guilt, Mason returns to his home division, but he can’t seem to let go of the tragedy. He remembers seeing something inside the building before it went up in flames, something that convinces him that not only is the virus still out there, it’s merely the first stage of an even more nefarious plan. Obsessed with unraveling the plot, he launches his own investigation and uncovers a shadow organization on the brink of enacting its genocidal agenda, one carried out by a sinister mass murderer who’s been photographed at the epicenter of seemingly every historical pandemic…without appearing to age. An evil man who attempts to derail Mason’s investigation by murdering his wife.

With the help of his longtime friends—Gunnar Backstrom, a corporate espionage gun-for-hire, and Ramses Donovan, a sin merchant of questionable morality—Mason’s hunt for his wife’s killer leads him from a dark union at the dawn of the twentieth century to a network of Nazi collaborators and a conspiracy against mankind more than a hundred years in the making. Fueled by anger and driven by the promise of vengeance, he must overcome a monster preparing to unleash his virulent wrath upon an unsuspecting world if he’s to have any hope of exposing a deep-state entity that’s rooted in every facet of our society, an entity known only as…The Thirteen.

This is book one in the series of “The Thirteen”. And it’s a great start to what I can tell you is a wild ride! The book starts out with Agent James Mason on a mission. He located what appeared to be a location that is housing dead or dying bodies of humans which have been used to test a virus. He encounters the person responsible for killing those immigrants and as this man with the “blue eyes” detonates a bomb, Mason loses his partner. It has lasting effects on him and a year later, he goes rogue, to determine what is really going on with that situation.

Further into the book, it appears his wife may be having an affair, and though she’s been insistent on meeting with him to talk about some things important to his case, she ends up being killed before being able to share her intel with him. This only angers Mason further, and pushes him to keep using the limited resources he has, to track and interrogate this man with the “blue eyes.”

Through a few extra characters that have access to satellites and intel, and a woman who has had first-person contact with this target, Mason is able to make some progress and learn some crucial points to this global threat, and it hits a little closer to home that he previously realized. And even with the biggest threat taken out, he begins to realize just how much more is at stake.

The suspense and writing is very easy to follow. And I cannot stress the significance of Laurence’s quotes throughout the book.

We are living currently through a pandemic of COVID-19 which according to conspiracy theorists has many proofs rooted in time and through leadership of certain countries. They insist this pandemic was planned and has much to do with those in power who have the money and resources to accomplish global shutdowns and governmental control. This book truly hits home for some of us as well!

Here is one quote that is written at the beginning of chapter 70, when the story really starts to unravel and the gloves comes of:

“Exactly. Fear. If they’re [people are] suitably afraid, people will line up for you to inject anything you want into their bloodstreams. They’ll relinquish any freedoms.”

Very scary to read, as America has raced to get the COVID-19 vaccines into the arms of its residents, as well as other countries. Much fear has had so many rushing to “get better” and “think of others”, but do we even know what are in these vaccines and what their outcomes will be?

I’ll leave you with a chilling quote from someone who always comes through speculation during times like these:

“Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty and am proud of it.” – David Rockefeller, Memoirs 2002.

This is a fiction book, but seems to be prophetic or at least speculating in the right direction…

I’ve chosen to postpone my other book reviews at this time to continue with Book Two: The Annihilation Protocol, so stay tuned for that. And then immediately following, I will continue with Book Three: The Elimination Threat, which will be available August 2021!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own and I appreciate the opportunity to receive an advanced reader copy to do so. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

until i met her

Beatrice Johnson Greene, a bestselling crime writer, has an unusual favor to ask. When a chance encounter brings Emma Fern into her life, she thinks she’s found just the person for the job. Soon Beatrice will wish they’d never met.

For Emma, desperate to please, it’s an offer she can’t refuse. All she has to do is lend her name to Beatrice’s next novel, her first in a new genre. But when the book becomes a huge triumph, Emma finds herself the toast of the literary world. From nobody to somebody without writing a word.

It’s her first taste of success, and now Emma wants more. This is her masterpiece, after all. It says so on the cover.

Only Beatrice knows the truth. And surely there’s a solution to that.

Until I Met Her begins with the funeral of an author- Emma Fern’s best friend and mentor. There is a private admission from Emma that she in fact, killed Beatrice. And so the book opens to reveal a mousy character who owns a vintage shop, is married to a successful businessman with a mundane life. But Emma Fern is nothing if she isn’t incredibly unpredictable.

Her entire world changes when Beatrice Johnson Greene entered her store. She can’t help but fall all over herself, complimenting her and winning her affection. The two quickly move from strangers to best friends, and within a short amount of time, trust begins to build between them. Emma begins to disregard the store, preferring to run off with Beatrice to drunken lunches, and shopping with the rich and famous.

Beatrice confides to Emma that she has written a book that is outside of her genre, and since a previous book of hers had bombed in the past, she was wondering if Emma could be the “author” for a novel she’d already written- take the credit, and be the face of this new book. At first, Emma is shocked and refuses to do it, but then her dream of being a writer is ignited, and she agrees.

Emma’s lust for fame, and a desire to remain friends with successful, untouchable Beatrice turns to greed as little by little Emma makes subtle changes to the manuscript and takes full possession of the book. And with no set contract in place, it’s hers, right?

A sidebar to consider in the novel is Emma’s relationship with her husband Jim. It is incredibly awkward, as she sees no wrong in him at all, and his lack of interest in anything she says/does. But because of his success, she admires and fawns all over him, even though he’s constantly dismissive of her. She seems to have a very skewed view of how well her own marriage is going. Pleasing Jim has always been her main concern, until the book…

Is Beatrice encouraged and thrilled for her best friend to have fame as well? Or is it truly a passive aggressive friendship that is doomed? You’ll have to read for yourself.

This was a quick read, one with unpredictable twists and turns, and moments of “what the what!?!!” I loved the characters, with the exception of Jim, who is so noticeably arrogant, that it makes me wonder what Emma really sees in him. And even though Emma is nothing like she seems in the beginning, I found that I liked her crazy thinking as she progresses through the story. She’s feminine, overthinks as many of us do, and a little immature, so I found her to be believable.

I loved Natalie Barelli’s first book in the Emma Fern series, that I’m currently reading the second book, After He Killed Me. Stay tuned for that review!!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer Publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 (http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html): “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”