She Treads Softly: Perfect Shot

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Perfect Shot

Perfect Shot by Steve Urszenyi
11/14/23; 368 pages
St. Martin's
Special Agent Alexandra Martel #1

Perfect Shot by Steve Urszenyi is a very highly recommended, action packed thriller and the first book in a new series.

FBI Special Agent Alexandra Martel, a former decorated Army sniper and combat medic, is currently on loan to Interpol and in the Netherlands when she learns an old friend, Krysten, an MI5 officer, has been killed under mysterious circumstances in London. Once in London, Krysten left clues that only Alex can follow. It becomes clear that much more is going on and that Alex has a target on her back and there is a larger scheme developing. Along with CIA agent Caleb Copeland Alex is called to Turkey to recover a stolen nuclear bomb.

Action explodes through the Netherlands, London, Turkey, and Paris. Alex is an intelligent, tough, tenacious woman and a good character to feature in the first novel of a new series. Caleb is still a bit of an enigma, but is clearly more than her equal. The two verbally spar, but work well together when threatened, pursued, and the conflict is intense.

The heart-stopping action, dangerous conflicts, espionage, and skirmishes are the main purpose of this thriller and Perfect Shot certainly delivers that globally. All this action makes for an un-put-downable thriller from start to finish. If undercover, global geopolitical action grabs your attention, then Perfect Shot will deliver.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of St. Martin's Press via NetGalley.

No comments:

Post a Comment

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.