This book was just an amazing read!!! If I could give it over 5*’s, I definitely would. I started reading this at 3, just to start it and had finished it by 6. I just couldn’t put it down.
The story centres on CIA agent Isabella Bendel, who lost her husband just after her twins were born. Due to the birth of her children, she had started doing more in-house work, rather than field work, and has just been promoted to Chief Supervisor in her work location in Washington DC. Her mother, an ex-CIA codebreaker, helps her by looking after the children when they aren’t at school, or she has to work late. She thought she was in a fairly safe role and wouldn’t be in any danger of leaving her kids without any parents, but she was wrong.
Someone has a plan and it involves getting rid of her. On her usual Sunday run, she is attacked by a man who is clearly trying to kill her. She had caught sight of a car and man, who she suddenly realised she had seen around her home and just managed to avoid his first strike. She manages to restrain him and dumps him in her car and takes him back to an interrogation room back at her HQ. When she tried to question him, he mocks her and this is when she finds out the attack wasn’t just on her, they have taken her children, and mother, as well. Who this group is and why they have targeted her or her family, is completely unknown.
All she knows is that there is a link to Russians, but the main plot and who is behind it and what they are attempting to achieve, is completely unknown. Isabella has to use all her previous field work experience and training, to try and get her family back. She has to find out who she can trust, as there may be a mole within their department. The obvious choice may not be the correct one! She has someone from her field days, with her husband, before they had got married and were working together, that she trusts explicitly and calls for her assistance.
Everything is being piled into finding her children and mother and there may be a Russian plot to uncover, but no-one is looking. They are all distracted by the kidnapping. Isabella has to deal with another assassin, cyber-attacks, a mole in her close knit group of trusted personnel/agents and a Russian led plot to destroy the very fabric of the United States. All of this leads to great, non-stop action and a thrill of a read. This was one of the most exciting thrillers I have ever read and I couldn’t put it down at all. I would recommend it to all. You have betrayal, loss, Russian sleeper agents, modern day computer viruses and cyber warfare, cold blooded psycho killers and a kick-ass mother and grandmother!!!
I will certainly look out for any next books by this author, as this is the only one listed on Amazon, so it could be a while. If this is the author’s first book, it is a cracker and shows a lot of skill in telling a story. I received an ARC copy of this book from Hidden Gems and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.