Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Espionage Thriller

THE BYZANTINE CROSS by Dena Weigel – Espionage Thriller, Cold War Thriller, International Mystery

The Byzantine Cross by Dena Weigel starts at the end of an explosive rogue mission. Sarah Kraft is committed to saving a record of irreplaceable relics from a bombing mission in World War II. Despite her extraordinary success, the OSS spy is later put out in the cold by her handler, Albert Phillips, for a mistake she didn’t commit.

Years after World War II has ended and the Cold War is dominating headlines, Kraft has a new role as an art insurance appraiser in New York. The company’s lip service for their rich clients and irreverence for her skills don’t sit well with Sarah. It becomes clear that her moral compass will soon lead her into unemployment. But right at the end of her rope, Agent Phillips returns to recruit her back into the organization, now rebranded the CIA.

Sarah Kraft’s mission is simple: break into the Kremlin and retrieve an ancient relic from before the birth of Christ.

The story cycles through multiple points of view, all trained with deadly accuracy on Kraft. The prize she seeks is the titular Byzantine Cross. Carved from Noah’s Ark, it is a revered heirloom of the Romanov family and was last seen with Rasputin, the Mad Monk. Now, the Vatican, the Soviet Union, and the United States are all poised on a knife’s edge, wondering if the Cross’s rumored mysterious power could be the key to the next weapon of mass destruction.

Traveling to Rome before her trip to Russia, Agent Kraft circumvents the old office, wanting to avoid the man who betrayed her and ended her career in intelligence. The culprit, Kraft’s ex-lover, Marco, remained silent as her professional life was destroyed when he let her take the blame for his deception. He reappears in her hotel room, hoping to ingratiate himself with Kraft to further exploit her for his own gain. Still with the CIA and charming as ever, Marco is a dangerous seductive force. But he’s only one of the forces arrayed against her.

Kraft faces the calculating Cardinal Max and the ruthless mercenary Yuri Feodorov as they attempt to take the cross from Kraft.

Even as a man of the cloth, Cardinal Max’s plans for the Byzantine Cross go far beyond a rich score. He believes the relic is the key to world domination and undying worship from the faithful. On the other side of the coin, Yuri hopes to fulfill his darkest desires in addition to the payout he receives from killing Sarah Kraft. Together, these men weave an entangling web that Kraft might not escape.

The mystery around the Byzantine Cross deepens as she meets her MI6 connection, Nicolai Rodzyanko, once she’s inside the Soviet Union.

As complications arise and Nicolai’s cover is compromised, the two agents are forced to flee both the Kremlin guards and Yuri, heading south toward Istanbul. Whether or not the spiritual power of the cross is real, there’s no questioning they face danger at every turn. As Kraft continues to unravel the history of the cross and its connection to Rasputin, she decides she can only trust herself to choose where the relic will finally be safe.

The Byzantine Cross stands for more than a simple relic.

Like the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones, it symbolizes the collision of ancient beliefs and the desire for power, something to be feared and revered by those who pursue it. Weigel weaves in themes of loyalty and doubt as Kraft tries to discover what this power might mean, and who she can trust to help her.

The Byzantine Cross takes the best of James Bond and Dan Brown and adds a dark layer of suspense into Sarah Kraft’s adventure. Having a woman as the lead enhances the dangers faced and gives a unique perspective for the thriller genre, making this a great debut that promises more adventures to come.

November 8, 2024
CARNAGE in SINGAPORE (The Bedlam Series Book 3) by Randall Krzak – Global Thriller, Political Thriller, Political Suspense

Carnage in Singapore, the third volume in Randall Krzak’s Bedlam counterterrorism thriller series, takes the team to the Far East for action against Muslim terrorists with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot to destroy Western influence by any means.

The terrorists’ idea unfolds as simple, even ingenious. Terrify residents and non-Muslims in major cities such as Jakarta and Singapore with a series of spectacular bombings designed to kill as many people as possible. Follow up with kidnapping ambassadors from Great Britain, Australia, and the United States – with such ruthlessness that Western-leaning nations will cease repression of Muslims, curtail training police and soldiers who hunt Muslim terrorists, and end support for anti-terrorism activities around the world.

The plot grows into actionable items among different Indonesian terrorist groups working together – if somewhat uneasily – with a common goal.

Their scheme calls for launching near-simultaneous multiple attacks against unsuspecting citizens, destroying the illusion of safety in daily life. By making the attacks in this way, they cripple the police and other civic services. The first strike uses rockets launched from a small obscure offshore island. The rockets explode in a crowded grandstand watching a Formula One Grand Prix auto race in Singapore. Other sites bombed or strafed include an amusement park, a traffic-laden bridge, and a Chinese cathedral.

All schemes execute without a hitch. All hit their targets with devastating accuracy. Hundreds are either lost or become hostages. Next comes the kidnapping of the ambassadors.

Some Indonesian groups come under suspicion. The ruthless Detachment 88 interrogates the suspects, but their brutality yields dead suspects instead of interrogated suspects.

Into the melee comes Bedlam Charlie, an international team of anti-terrorist experts trained in all phases of investigation and apprehension. Their mission? Simple – to stop the bombings and free various prisoners in the attacks. They must deal with a mélange of bad investigations and spies within the police ranks who thwart their moves and even place team members in mortal danger.

The political motives behind the governments involved in deploying Bedlam Charlie don’t lack complexity. Will the Indonesian police accept their help? Will the governments behind Bedlam Charlie allow the team to get involved and risk the political outfall if they fail?

The terrorists come well-armed and tactically highly skilled, able to break through even the most sophisticated protection schemes to kidnap their high-profile targets.

Naming real sites as the intended targets of the terrorist attacks helps to separate this book from several others of this genre.

If a novel about terrorism in New York City named the Marriott Hotel on Times Square, Nathan’s Hot Dogs, and Yankee Stadium as successful targets, the gut-level effect here would be similar. The fictional terrorists’ logic matches actual attacks on cities and nations around the world including our own.

The novel also explores the aspirations and the politics within the terrorists’ ranks. Various factions and individuals find themselves looking for their own moment of glory as they both complete their missions and compete for attention.

Thriller fans will devour Krzak’s modern us-against-them take on storytelling. Of course, what makes Carnage in Singapore such a strong novel is its plausibility. It’s terrifying and terrific at the same time – and definitely holds its own among modern thriller authors of today. Randall Krzak took home 1st Place for Carnage in Singapore in the 2019 CIBAs Global Thrillers Book Awards.

Read our review for Dangerous Alliance, here.

August 14, 2021
CHASING CLEOPATRA by Tina Sloan – Espionage, Romantic Suspense Thriller, Mystery

Was there ever a woman as glamorous and complex as Cleopatra Gallier? She’s 44, drop-dead gorgeous, charmingly clever, fabulously wealthy, a martial arts expert, and she lives in a luxurious villa on a stretch of Hawaii’s coastline.

All would seem perfect in Cleo’s world and she puts on her “best game face,” but sadly we learn, she’s traumatized for life after a horrendous childhood assault. Since then, she has kept her distance from others, particularly, men. Well, except for one.

But as Chasing Cleopatra opens, the new novel by American actress Tina Sloan, Cleo’s undercurrents of pent up passion are going to vent. She literally crashes into a young man―a much younger man―with her car―a minor accident, actually. But Cleo finds herself inexplicably and uncontrollably sexually attracted to the young handsome rogue and he is more than willing to reciprocate. Raging hormones on both sides of the sexual divide take over making for some torrid romancing.

So, you think, this is going to be that kind of novel.

Clearly, from the first words, you suspect there is going to be a lot more than “that” in Chasing Cleopatra and you will not be disappointed.

Cleopatra’s lustful affair with young Jake Regan becomes more complex as she discovers his presence in Hawaii is due to a Christmas holiday vacation with his (Norman Rockwellesque) family. Mother and his two brothers have arrived. Jake’s dad is expected to arrive at any moment from yet another far-flung business trip. But the coup d’état is that Jake’s longtime girlfriend, who also is en route, is expecting wedding bells to be announced at the gathering. It becomes obvious that Cleo and Jake’s unrelenting passion will have an impact on the Regan family.

What neither of them can anticipate is how their relationship over the next few days will also force the other members of his family to reveal their own secrets, some of which will open old wounds and create some life-changing events.

One of those secrets will reveal a pending Al Qaeda attack on Pearl Harbor. The other will delve deeply into Cleo’s past and touch her most challenging moment: the death of the only man she ever truly loved. Who would think that one of the Regan family’s secrets would become an existential threat to the life and purpose of Cleopatra Gallier and the Regan family?

The writing is lush, with the perfect amount of details, and the storytelling had this reader turning the pages. The intriguing backstory seems to presage a series of books on the life and times of Cleopatra Gallier. If so, they would make a great addition (with a more contemporary slant) to the reading list for devotees of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Catriona McPherson’s Dandy Gilver series.

Combining a romance novel with a thriller is not easy, but Chasing Cleopatra delivers the goods with plotting as intricate as a silver spider’s web.

March 3, 2020
The EIGHTH SISTER: A Thriller (Charles Jenkins) by Robert Dugoni – Conspiracy Thrillers, Espionage Thrillers, Assassination Thrillers

It begins innocently enough if anything connected with the CIA can be labeled “innocent.” Long- retired, 63-year-old CIA agent Charles Jenkins is enjoying his Puget Sound farm, reveling in his life with Alex, his wife, and his nine-year-old son. The small family is eagerly awaiting the birth of their second child. Life is good. He has a private security business that has paid the bills up to now. A major client is falling far behind on paying invoices.

Then, Jenkins’ former CIA station chief from oh-so-many-years ago shows up at his door.

The U.S. government, it seems, has reared seven Russian “sisters” who are meant to embed themselves in the Russian government as spies. The problem is, the sisters are mysteriously disappearing. The former station chief and his team believe there may be an eighth “sister” activated by the enemy to uncover our agents’ identities. Jenkins is uniquely qualified for the job.

The mission, should Jenkins choose to accept it is to go to Russia and identify the eighth “sister.” The job would end there. And the payment? Honestly, he would be a fool to turn the assignment down. But why him? How could he possibly enter Russia as a former CIA spy and not be picked up by the FSB, successor to the notorious KGB?

Dugoni is a master writer of slam-bam, can’t-put-it-down action novels. The Eighth Sister follows in that path. For followers of his other series, many will be pleased by the appearance in this book of attorney David Sloane, the popular hero of three previous Dugoni novels: a sign, perhaps that other beloved characters from his galaxy of heroes and anti-heroes will make appearances in subsequent Jenkins books.

Like other Dugoni novels, the author gives us a rich protagonist. Jenkins emerges as a complex man, caught up in multiple webs of deception, and desperately aware of his limitations. He is no longer in his prime, and he’s yearning to be back with his family on the quiet farm. Instead, he finds himself in an inescapable trap. What will happen next?

In the end, Charles Jenkins ponders if he can ever return to his life from which he was wrenched on that fateful day.

A second Jenkins novel will be released later in 2020, and it’s a sure bet he will once again find himself at danger’s doorstep. It’s a promise on which Dugoni readers can count on. Roadside Attractions, a sister company of Lionsgate Productions, producers of Netflix’ “Orange Is the New Black” TV series, and the John Wick film franchise has recently optioned The Eighth Sister for an 11-part television presentation. They know a killer series when they see one, and so will you when you pick up Robert Dugoni’s latest thriller, The Eighth Sister.

February 14, 2020