She Treads Softly: Remote

Friday, October 13, 2023

Remote

Remote by Brian Shea, Stacy Lynn Miller
10/17/23; 260 pages
Severn River Publishing
Lexi Mills #5

Remote by Brian Shea, Stacy Lynn Miller is a recommended thriller and the fifth book in the Lexi Mills series.

A senator's aide is killed in a car crash and pieces of a mysterious object are found in the wreckage. At the same time ATF Agent Lexi Mills is called away from her honeymoon to defuse a bomb in an active bank robbery. Evidence is found at both scenes that indicate the Raven is back. The Raven is not only back, but he has cutting edge technology he is using in a controversial high-tech weapon. As they investigate it becomes clear that Lexi and Nathan Croft, her partner, need to use all their training and intelligence to stop the Raven's nefarious plans.

The plot moves at a fast pace and is full of twists and surprises. It is centered around a frightening new technology that has been developed - a drone resembling an insect/fly named the Locust. This small innocuous looking drone is capable of killing its targets.

It's important in this case to take note that this is book number five in the series because it really matters. Fans and followers of the series will likely enjoy this installment much more and rate it higher than I did as they have experience with the characters. Because I didn't have any backstory or history with the main characters, I never felt a connection to them. This is important in Remote because their personal lives are a major part of the narrative.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Severn River Publishing via Edelweiss.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.