Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

After a six-year hiatus since The First Order (2016), Sam Capra returns to help capture a traitor in this fast-paced thriller. Capra knows treason and betrayal on a personal level. He is a conscientious dad raising 13-year-old Daniel in Austin, alone (but for a nanny), while managing a multinational network of bars and working for the Federal Intelligence Analysis Office. Said feds ask him to keep an eye on Amanda Bolt, the daughter of Markus Bolt, a “traitorous piece of garbage” who “gutted a dozen operations at the CIA” and defected to Russia 13 years ago. Now the Russians can't find him either. Maybe he's back in the U.S. trying to reunite with abandoned Amanda. The Russians believe he's stolen a map detailing President Morozov’s secret overseas financial accounts, so of course they want him dead. Bolt is trying to do a “traitor’s dance” to find a safe haven and leave no trace behind. (Of course if he knew all the steps, there would be no story.) Meanwhile and much to Capra's shame, Lucy, his dead ex-wife and former CIA colleague, also betrayed the United States. Innocent Daniel knows nothing of mom’s culpability or dad’s secret work for the government, and Sam hopes to keep it that way. Good luck with that, because the lad is soon drawn into the mess without knowing how or why. “Daniel was worth all the pain in the world,” Capra correctly muses—his son has character and guts, and he proves to be no pushover. There's plenty of gunplay, although nothing gory. Capra must beware the dreaded German hit woman Marianne, who even has trainee hit persons under her wing. There are a couple of curious questions of paternity that don't quite ring true, but no matter—it's still fast-paced entertainment. Plenty of twists and excitement all the way to the last line. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.