I have to say, I was intrigued by the idea of a look behind the curtain of a special operations training course, especially one with a strong female lead. The format was different, but sounded intriguing in the blurb. Different isn’t always bad, and I was willing to give it a try because I’ve loved spy and special ops stuff in books since I read Eye of The Needle as a teenager. Also, the author seems to have taken a similar writing path to mine, writing a Zombie apocalypse novel first, then a thriller with a kick ass female lead, which makes me like him already.
Once I got into it, I really liked the format and I think the author made the most of it, but in the early pages I almost quit reading. There was a lot of “Personnel File” type information that probably reflects what one would find in a real file of this sort, but it didn’t draw me in or make me want to keep reading. None of it was critical information, and most gets passed on in one way or another later. Fortunately, this section was fairly short and, once we got into the meat of the story, I was completely hooked. Carrie’s strength and trepidation come through well as she describes her training to the doctor supposedly evaluating her fitness for the position. She’s smart, tough and a little introverted, but likeable. The pair spar for several rounds, each side feeling the other out, not wanting to reveal anything the other can use to gain an advantage, but eventually both let slip details they would rather not, and learn more than the other wants them to. Carrie relates the events of several training exercises and some of her past along the way. The reader and the psychologist know she’s holding some things back but she manages to remain mostly opaque as the doctor probes ever deeper into her psyche.
I was turning pages deep into the night on this one and the ending was excellent. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Agent Carrie Harris.