Reviews for The shadow list
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
A thrill-less thriller is a real disappointment, and despite some colorful globe-hopping, Judd Ryker's fourth outing falls flat. This time, he is sent to Nigeria to track down an American businessman who seems to be the victim of the old Nigerian email scam, but he soon finds out that the case is much bigger than he expected and that it involves Ryker's wife, Jessica, who is being touted among Russian criminal circles as the dreaded "Queen of Sheba." Judd comes into contact with other twisty characters including a basket-ball star, a Cockney killer, and a local judge who seems to know more than he admits. VERDICT Narrator Piter Marek does his best to keep whatever action there is flowing smoothly, but this is definitely a marginal and optional purchase for public libraries.-Joseph L. Carlson, Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Another fast-paced diplomatic thriller featuring State Department crisis manager Judd Ryker (Minute Zero, 2015).A gullible businessman in London falls hard for a free-money scam and disappears. Under an influential congressman's pressure, Judd Ryker is reassigned from an important project to find the man. Then Judd's wife, Jessica Ryker, who heads a covert unit at the CIA in Langley, is assigned to meet and learn about the Bear, a Russian mobster and "monster" who "operates a vast criminal syndicate from St. Petersburg" that extends worldwide, dealing in everything from "vodka and toilet paper" to "heroin and whores." Then pirates attack an oil platform off the Nigerian coast, leaving no survivors. Fascinating characters populate the pages, like the 7-foot-2-inch Nigerian NBA player Tunde Babatunde; the fearsome Queen Sheba, who is a faux contract killer and really a CIA agent; Funke Kanju, the colorful internet personality and thorn in the Nigerian government's side; and the obligatory venal congressman. Don't get attached to everyone, though, because many don't survive. All the while, young Nigerians engage in romantic intercontinental email conversations, deftly duping lonely hearts into writing large checks for airfare or medical bills. It was "the art of the scam in the age of free emailshaping the pitch to catch your perfect marks." The action moves swiftly from Langley to Lagos to Saint Petersburg, with hardly time for a quiet bowl of borschttrouble is always boiling, danger always present. But living on the edge for the CIA is a career well suited for Judd and Jessica, because they thrive on tension and challenge. The two are smart, appealing characters readers will enjoy spending a few hours with.Far more action than diplomacy in this page-flipping yarn. Fans of diplomatic thrillers will love this one. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
In Moss's rewarding fourth Judd Ryker political thriller (after 2016's Ghosts of Havana), Judd, the head of the State Department's Crisis Reaction Unit, takes on the job of locating financial firm employee Jason Saunders. Jason, who went missing in London, may have gotten mixed up in a scam centered in Nigeria. Judd is dispatched from Washington, D.C., to Nigeria, where he also looks into death threats received by Nigerian judge Bola Akinola and the kidnapping of famous basketball player Tunde Babatunde. Meanwhile, Judd's CIA agent wife, Jessica, is ordered into Russia to infiltrate the operation of a mobster nicknamed the Bear. Judd competently handles everything dished out to him, but Jessica's superior spying skills are the real show-stoppers. The book is at least one subplot too long, but by the end fans will be happy to follow the couple into whatever trouble the U.S. government has in store for them next. Agent: Josh Getzler, HSG Agency. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Judd Ryker, head of the State Department's Crisis Reaction Unit, knows the world is messy and dangerous; his wife, Jessica, a CIA agent, knows it, too. Currently, he's working to keep the South China Sea from becoming a war zone, and she is tracking a gangster known only as Bear, who traffics in drugs, arms, uranium, women and children, and any other commodity prized by the world's terrorists and gangsters. Jessica is off to St. Petersburg to meet Bear, and Judd is dispatched to Nigeria to secure the release of an NBA star who has been abducted on a visit to his homeland. Moss, once a top State Department Africanist, ramps up the suspense and the action well into the red zone. His sketch of Nigeria is fascinating and edgy. It spans the oil riches in the Gulf of Guinea, terrorist groups, corrupt officials, efforts to rein in corruption, and the evolution of the Nigerian Prince letter scam of the 1990s into an ultraslick con that might reel in a credulous hedge funder. The world really is messy and dangerous, and Moss brings it all to vivid life.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2017 Booklist
