She Treads Softly: The Shadow Friends

Thursday, July 23, 2026

The Shadow Friends

The Shadow Friends by Tess Gerritsen
8/25/26; 319 pages
Thomas & Mercer
The Martini Club #3

The Shadow Friends by Tess Gerritsen is a very highly recommended spy thriller and the welcomed third book in the reliably excellent Martini Club series. The Martini Club in Purity, Maine, is composed of likeable, skilled former CIA agents, Ingrid and Lloyd Slocum, Maggie Bird, Declan Rose, and Ben Diamond.

After opening with a scene from a CIA operation Ingrid was a part of 28 years earlier, the action moves to the present day. There is a global affairs conference being held at the Cod Cove Resort in Purity which Ingrid is helping coordinate when her former ex-CIA colleague and lover Rodrigo Estrada shows up, hoping to recruit her for his private security agency Argus. Events escalate when Mikhail Maslov, a renowned disease expert and Russian defector mysteriously becomes very ill and later dies.

When this is followed by the murder of a waitress at the conference hotel which has clue that is intrinsically connected with the disastrous operation from 28 years ago, Ingrid decides to join Rodrigo in an attempt to uncover the truth and they head to Amsterdam to track down the killer. The remaining members of the Martini Club Investigate and closely following on their own to protect Ingrid are Lloyd and Maggie. Involved in the local investigations is the intelligent and capable police chief, Jo Thibodeau, who is well acquainted with the members of the Martini Club.

This is another, excellent, well-written, intelligent, fast-paced, intricately plotted, and action-packed addition to the series. Nothing is exactly as it seems at first glance and some of the clues to help the present investigation are clues that were buried in the past. There are plenty of discoveries and twists along the way while all the clues are logically followed. The plots in every one of the books in the series are dependably interesting and compelling. Honestly, every book in the series has been exceptional and The Shadow Friends is no exception. The series includes: The Spy Coast (2023), The Summer Guests (2025), and now The Shadow Friends (2026)

Another major reason this series excels is because all of the characters are so likable and portrayed as fully realized unique individuals with distinct personalities and experiences. They all have plenty of secrets in their past and with those secrets, a world of experience. Since the characters have been in three novels now, they were all well-known to me and I was thrilled to follow them on another investigation. It would be a mistake to not mention the long-suffering police chief Jo Thibodeau who has interacted with the club members from the start.

The Shadow Friends is an excellent choice for those who enjoy spy thrillers and everyone following the series. Hopefully we will see these seniors on another case soon. Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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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.