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Blake Twenty-Three
You know those shadowy government organizations that pop up as villains in spy thrillers and suspense movies? Ever wondered what would possess someone to work for an organization whose main agenda appears to be counterproductive to the good of mankind and most of its agents meet violent ends?
Meet Agent Blake. He's not the first Jasper Blake to work for Argus, or even the second...
He's the twenty-third Agent Blake, and he's determined to outlast his predecessors in a job where his employers are more dangerous than his enemies. He's on a mission to save the world, or end it (he's not sure which), while he simultaneously re-examines the life choices that led to his present predicament.
Blake Twenty-Three is a character study masquerading as a pulp action spy novel.
“ IMPOSSIBLE crossed with THE CATCHER IN THE RYE.”
Meet Agent Blake. He's not the first Jasper Blake to work for Argus, or even the second...
He's the twenty-third Agent Blake, and he's determined to outlast his predecessors in a job where his employers are more dangerous than his enemies. He's on a mission to save the world, or end it (he's not sure which), while he simultaneously re-examines the life choices that led to his present predicament.
Blake Twenty-Three is a character study masquerading as a pulp action spy novel.
“ IMPOSSIBLE crossed with THE CATCHER IN THE RYE.”
462 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2010
12 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Slade Grayson
8 books22 followersSlade Grayson is a reformed supervillain and author of the spy novel, BLAKE TWENTY-THREE, the werewolf/suspense novel, AUTUMN MOON, the horror/action novel, I AM THE NIGHT, and the fun superhero novel, KILL YOUR HEROES. There are more coming.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 16, 2025
DNF at 9%, in a "tense" scene with entirely too much tedious four-way dialogue, including inner dialogue. Considering he's at gunpoint... Yeah. If it's supposed to be funny, no one informed the author that brevity would've helped. Or he didn't take it to heart.
March 12, 2016
Since moving to Richmond, I've been pleased to see that there is a thriving writing community in the area and around such. Grayson is one of the first authors I've had the pleasure of getting the chance to sit and talk to. (Or rather stand, as I remember the situation.) He was exceedingly gracious to the strange person who came up, introducing themselves as "that person who friended you on Goodreads," and I left pleased to have a book of his. Since we'd spoken about the fact that I'm a blogger/reviewer, I was particularly intrigued by BLAKE TWENTY-THREE, since we both conceded that it was less likely to grab the popular audience than his other work available--a werewolf story.
Yeah.
I've been lucky to come across several books lately with similar senses of humor lately, which appeal to my inner snark. I often say that it's humor that reminds me of Alistair, my main character from REVOLUTION (see VAMPED and ADMIRAL, though the second review isn't out yet, sorry) and it's an easy catch for me. I like first person narrators who know they're telling a story, and have a good sense of humor about the drama happening around them. Jasper Blake is exactly this kind of narrator.
Jasper Blake isn't his real name, it's a codename--not unlike James Bond, passed on from agent to agent. (At least, that's how I see Bond.) And as the blurb says (and you might also infer from the title), he's not the first person to be Jasper Blake. Blake is the twenty-third in his line, and Argus (the company he's named for) seems to have a very particular attraction to this rendition of Jasper Blake.
To be fair, I can't really tell you what this book is about. But I don't take that as a detraction from the book. It's a spy novel. Blake goes out, beats up bad guys, sleeps with sexy ladies, and has snarky one-liners. I'm not sure what else one would be looking for in a spy novel. There's just enough plot and character development to keep the ball rolling, and enough held just out of eyesight to give you a few surprises. (Anna's identity, his datalink through his earpiece, surprised me. Not sure why, but it did.) The bad guys lose (basically) and the good guys win (if you consider Argus the "good guys," which is up for interpretation) and we're given a truly fantastic ending...if not a typical one. But given bot Blake tells his story and who he's set up to be, he couldn't have a different ending--which he says as much at the end. Grayson is a master of never leaving an open end--a welcome change from the norm.
There is a lot of time shifting between chapters, which takes a while to wrap your head around. There's an element of the storytelling from the movie Memento to it, jumping from present day to past tense with each scene, and while it's effective and tells the story well, I found it a bit distracting. Having a book force me to wait until halfway through to really have a handle on the timeline is irksome, though I understand why Grayson did it and I think it's most effective this way. It's just a bit tiresome.
Would I have liked the ending to wrap up a bit more neatly? Well sure, but I agree with the ending I got even if it's not my favorite. And a secret agent who's paid in comic books is always going to be worth my time to read. Blake has a great sense of humor and I appreciate that more than I can say.
(Also, I think he's at least slightly modeled after the author himself. Look at the author picture and then look at the description. Hmmmmm. I see what you did there, sir.)
Absolutely a book I recommend picking up.
Rating: **** (Recommended)
Read the full review at my blog here.
Yeah.
I've been lucky to come across several books lately with similar senses of humor lately, which appeal to my inner snark. I often say that it's humor that reminds me of Alistair, my main character from REVOLUTION (see VAMPED and ADMIRAL, though the second review isn't out yet, sorry) and it's an easy catch for me. I like first person narrators who know they're telling a story, and have a good sense of humor about the drama happening around them. Jasper Blake is exactly this kind of narrator.
Jasper Blake isn't his real name, it's a codename--not unlike James Bond, passed on from agent to agent. (At least, that's how I see Bond.) And as the blurb says (and you might also infer from the title), he's not the first person to be Jasper Blake. Blake is the twenty-third in his line, and Argus (the company he's named for) seems to have a very particular attraction to this rendition of Jasper Blake.
To be fair, I can't really tell you what this book is about. But I don't take that as a detraction from the book. It's a spy novel. Blake goes out, beats up bad guys, sleeps with sexy ladies, and has snarky one-liners. I'm not sure what else one would be looking for in a spy novel. There's just enough plot and character development to keep the ball rolling, and enough held just out of eyesight to give you a few surprises. (Anna's identity, his datalink through his earpiece, surprised me. Not sure why, but it did.) The bad guys lose (basically) and the good guys win (if you consider Argus the "good guys," which is up for interpretation) and we're given a truly fantastic ending...if not a typical one. But given bot Blake tells his story and who he's set up to be, he couldn't have a different ending--which he says as much at the end. Grayson is a master of never leaving an open end--a welcome change from the norm.
There is a lot of time shifting between chapters, which takes a while to wrap your head around. There's an element of the storytelling from the movie Memento to it, jumping from present day to past tense with each scene, and while it's effective and tells the story well, I found it a bit distracting. Having a book force me to wait until halfway through to really have a handle on the timeline is irksome, though I understand why Grayson did it and I think it's most effective this way. It's just a bit tiresome.
Would I have liked the ending to wrap up a bit more neatly? Well sure, but I agree with the ending I got even if it's not my favorite. And a secret agent who's paid in comic books is always going to be worth my time to read. Blake has a great sense of humor and I appreciate that more than I can say.
(Also, I think he's at least slightly modeled after the author himself. Look at the author picture and then look at the description. Hmmmmm. I see what you did there, sir.)
Absolutely a book I recommend picking up.
Rating: **** (Recommended)
Read the full review at my blog here.
June 16, 2016
I don’t know if this is the book you deserve, but it’s the book you need. (That’s clever, you see, because there are a lot of Batman references in this book… ahem, anyway.)
Blake Twenty-Three by Slade Grayson begins with a message the literary world needs to hear: “Just have fun.” We often forget reading and storytelling is supposed to be something we enjoy. Many of us get so stilted and wooden with our critical analysis and pushing our nerd glasses up on the bridges of our noses that we overlook an integral part of the reading experience: escape. If one-half of storytelling is information conveyance, the other half is signal quality. Maybe “integrity” is the right word there. I don’t know, but what it boils down to is a measure of enjoyment.
I’m not going to reiterate the plot in detail here. You can go read that elsewhere (scroll up, maybe). But part of Blake Twenty-Three’s strength is its simplicity. Essentially, a guy gets suckered into working for a shadow organization that he’s pretty sure are the bad guys, and this particular mission could save the world. Or probably end it. Blake’s pretty sure it’s the latter, but there’s not much he can do except do his job.
Also, Blake is kind of a jerk. He’s not a jerk in a villainous way (although he does some pretty heinous things). He’s not quite a jerk in a way that you root for him to be a better bad guy. He’s not a jerk in a Walter White kind of way where you hope, one of these episodes, he’s going to turn it all around, but instead he keeps being the stupidest brilliant person on the planet.
No, the best way I can explain Blake is that he reads a little like I imagine a James Bond novel would read like if Quentin Tarantino wrote it. It is fast, fun, sarcastic, and stylized and never takes itself too seriously. It is also creative and meaningful.
It’s so honest. Beautifully honest and cynical in a fresh way. All of those pulp spy novels you think Blake Twenty-Three is, the ones that are over-the-top raunchy or hyperslick and dripping with the overflowing inkwells of noir? Blake scoffs at them because he just doesn’t care.
I hesitate to call it apathy, but Blake Twenty-Three unlocked a part of literature that’s been pent up in me for a long time. It realigns priorities. It doesn’t shake you and scream at you to pay attention. It frankly doesn’t care. The experience is almost autonomous, and you can follow along if you like. Or not. Again, Blake doesn’t care.
In a reverse psychology kind of way, it’s alluring. It doesn’t beckon you to come along on a ride. It shows you its back and walks away, and you’re left stunned on the sidewalk with nowhere to go but in the same direction Blake is going.
My final verdict is that Blake Twenty-Three is smart, fun, and ultimately impressive. In other words, inspiring. It may not be a novel that will change your life, but it’s a novel you need to read, if for nothing else, to remember why you started reading in the first place. I highly recommend it for anyone in the mood for a fast-reading spy thriller that will make you laugh out loud while launching you through tense action and conflict.
Blake Twenty-Three by Slade Grayson begins with a message the literary world needs to hear: “Just have fun.” We often forget reading and storytelling is supposed to be something we enjoy. Many of us get so stilted and wooden with our critical analysis and pushing our nerd glasses up on the bridges of our noses that we overlook an integral part of the reading experience: escape. If one-half of storytelling is information conveyance, the other half is signal quality. Maybe “integrity” is the right word there. I don’t know, but what it boils down to is a measure of enjoyment.
I’m not going to reiterate the plot in detail here. You can go read that elsewhere (scroll up, maybe). But part of Blake Twenty-Three’s strength is its simplicity. Essentially, a guy gets suckered into working for a shadow organization that he’s pretty sure are the bad guys, and this particular mission could save the world. Or probably end it. Blake’s pretty sure it’s the latter, but there’s not much he can do except do his job.
Also, Blake is kind of a jerk. He’s not a jerk in a villainous way (although he does some pretty heinous things). He’s not quite a jerk in a way that you root for him to be a better bad guy. He’s not a jerk in a Walter White kind of way where you hope, one of these episodes, he’s going to turn it all around, but instead he keeps being the stupidest brilliant person on the planet.
No, the best way I can explain Blake is that he reads a little like I imagine a James Bond novel would read like if Quentin Tarantino wrote it. It is fast, fun, sarcastic, and stylized and never takes itself too seriously. It is also creative and meaningful.
It’s so honest. Beautifully honest and cynical in a fresh way. All of those pulp spy novels you think Blake Twenty-Three is, the ones that are over-the-top raunchy or hyperslick and dripping with the overflowing inkwells of noir? Blake scoffs at them because he just doesn’t care.
I hesitate to call it apathy, but Blake Twenty-Three unlocked a part of literature that’s been pent up in me for a long time. It realigns priorities. It doesn’t shake you and scream at you to pay attention. It frankly doesn’t care. The experience is almost autonomous, and you can follow along if you like. Or not. Again, Blake doesn’t care.
In a reverse psychology kind of way, it’s alluring. It doesn’t beckon you to come along on a ride. It shows you its back and walks away, and you’re left stunned on the sidewalk with nowhere to go but in the same direction Blake is going.
My final verdict is that Blake Twenty-Three is smart, fun, and ultimately impressive. In other words, inspiring. It may not be a novel that will change your life, but it’s a novel you need to read, if for nothing else, to remember why you started reading in the first place. I highly recommend it for anyone in the mood for a fast-reading spy thriller that will make you laugh out loud while launching you through tense action and conflict.
May 10, 2015
Blake Twenty-Three is a sci fi suspense thriller with a captivating twist. The hero Blake opts to work as an operative for a rogue hyper secret national security organization named Argus rather than serve out a felony sentence of life imprisonment. He is the twenty-third person to be assigned the alias Jasper Blake (his predecessors having all perished in the line of duty), hence the title Blake Twenty-Three. While the reader never learns the details of Blake’s original crime, periodic flashbacks convey the image of a thoughtful, avid collector of Batman comic books rather than a criminal personality.
In Blake’s new persona as secret agent, he is subject to continuous electronic surveillance by his superiors while ordered to locate a mysterious vial containing a cure for all diseases. As the momentum of violent struggles with shadowy enemies quickens, Blake’s love for the young woman tasked with keeping guard over him, electronically and in person, adds spice to the drama. In the end the couple conspires to escape the agency’s shackles – almost but not quite succeeding....
This is a fast-paced tale with an absorbing plot and fascinating character development: from murky antagonists to victims of happenstance caught in the web of intrigue to vicious agency higher-ups to Blake himself, who is at one point prepared to die rather than take shelter in a children’s home and endangering the kids. Grayson’s book is an exciting read that also provokes reflection upon the parallels between the criminal and security networks of our world.
In Blake’s new persona as secret agent, he is subject to continuous electronic surveillance by his superiors while ordered to locate a mysterious vial containing a cure for all diseases. As the momentum of violent struggles with shadowy enemies quickens, Blake’s love for the young woman tasked with keeping guard over him, electronically and in person, adds spice to the drama. In the end the couple conspires to escape the agency’s shackles – almost but not quite succeeding....
This is a fast-paced tale with an absorbing plot and fascinating character development: from murky antagonists to victims of happenstance caught in the web of intrigue to vicious agency higher-ups to Blake himself, who is at one point prepared to die rather than take shelter in a children’s home and endangering the kids. Grayson’s book is an exciting read that also provokes reflection upon the parallels between the criminal and security networks of our world.
February 15, 2019
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
So here's what you think you're getting: Another Jason Borne meets Mission Impossible with huge action set pieces and an inconceivably complex set of characters that all play intricate roles in the world's largest con job/fake out/mask wearing/gadget using/gun shooting/skyscraper blower upping adventure story that, while entertaining, is ultimately surface, pedantic, and pretty much another paint by the numbers spy story.
But here's what you actually get: A story about people. Flawed people. Mistake making, regret having, actual freaking human beings. You get moments of real sorrow and guilt. You get a protagonist who, frankly, isn't anyone to model yourself after. You get sob stories that get called out for their B.S., you get villains who are evil because the things they do we've all thought about doing ourselves, and you get to see some things go right, while other things go horribly, horribly wrong. And the entire time, you just want to close your eyes... but you can't, not until you get to that last page.
So here's what you think you're getting: Another Jason Borne meets Mission Impossible with huge action set pieces and an inconceivably complex set of characters that all play intricate roles in the world's largest con job/fake out/mask wearing/gadget using/gun shooting/skyscraper blower upping adventure story that, while entertaining, is ultimately surface, pedantic, and pretty much another paint by the numbers spy story.
But here's what you actually get: A story about people. Flawed people. Mistake making, regret having, actual freaking human beings. You get moments of real sorrow and guilt. You get a protagonist who, frankly, isn't anyone to model yourself after. You get sob stories that get called out for their B.S., you get villains who are evil because the things they do we've all thought about doing ourselves, and you get to see some things go right, while other things go horribly, horribly wrong. And the entire time, you just want to close your eyes... but you can't, not until you get to that last page.
March 29, 2022
clever, witty, surprisingly good
Don’t know why I’m surprised. His last book was also clever and entertaining to the last page. Spade Grayson can really write His protagonist is a narcissist with self image problems who you nevertheless really root for as he sorts out working for an evil government agency while working through his own demons.
Don’t know why I’m surprised. His last book was also clever and entertaining to the last page. Spade Grayson can really write His protagonist is a narcissist with self image problems who you nevertheless really root for as he sorts out working for an evil government agency while working through his own demons.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews