Crime

Sydney Fitzgerald is back in this third book in her series. She's in Washington DC and still getting pulled into very non-FBI things. And boy oh boy is there a soup of lettered agencies in this book. ATLAS to Syd's FBI.

It's a pretty classic thriller. It starts with the assassination of a Senator. But it's Sydney's former partner Tony that gets flown cross country to investigate that. Sydney gets to go over to Amsterdam/Europe so she can do the sketch of a suspected killer. Of course, this is Sydney and fiction and so, it doesn't stop there, and she in Europe and Tony in the US get thrown in to the deep end going against 'the Network' who, apparently are deeply involved in the government. Which, of course, makes who to trust and who not to trust hard to know. Add in one of the ATLAS' agents' wife and the fact that we don't know if she's dead or alive, and it's a ride that never really slows down.

While I did like the plot (although it was also a bit disturbing and scary since I could see some of it happening in real life). I found some parts of the novel way too scattered. Sometimes it also seemed as though there were just too many characters, story lines, things going on at the same time. And while they all came together in a well written way by the end, at some points I just felt as though I was getting characters thrown at me.

Then there was the very end (the wrap up after everything came together). After all the ramping up and the climax of the thriller, it just seemed like such a blah ending.

Overall though, a solid three star thriller with an interesting (and sorta scary) plot. ( )

Having read the first two books in the Sydney Fitzpatrick series I naturally continued with the third - initially I was a little disappointed with this one, it seemed to be a bit too "fictiony" whereas I usually like more realism to my novels. It did however redeem itself in the latter half to the point you're able to overlook the bizarre circumstances and enjoy the action and adventure.

Seemed like it was trying a bit too hard to be a spy novel and over reached.

Overall, an enjoyable time-filler. Preferred books 1 & 2 though. ( )

The action never stops in this thriller by Robin Burcell, as CIA agent Zach Griffin escapes across the rooftops of Amsterdam's red light district, and special FBI agent Sydney Fitzpatrick narrowly escapes death when a vital witness is murdered. But with her skill as a forensic artist, Fitzpatrick has created a sketch that proves to be more important than she realized, when the woman in the sketch proves to be someone who supposedly died two years previously, and the wife of Zach Griffin.
Then a U.S. Senator is murdered as he is about to give a public speech. A mentally deranged suspect is soon arrested, but he conveniently commits suicide while in custody. Somehow the Senator's murder is connected to a deadly virus that could kill thousands, and agents risk their lives to infiltrate a remote Network compound in the Brazilian jungle. Agents Fitzpatrick and Griffin both work against time to find the virus before it can be used.
The Dark Hour contains a dizzying cast of characters that somehow manage to connect in a satisfying and unexpected conclusion. The characters are renegades and extreme risk-takers, but in the world of espionage, what else would they be? Along the way, the agents even have time to think of romance, which not surprisingly never seems to work out.
Agents from the FBI, CIA, MI6 and ATLAS ( a U.S. intelligence agency that works clandestinely outside and inside the country all fight against the evil of "the Network." And with the layers of intelligence agencies involved, as well as double agents and suspected double agents, it is often difficult to identify the bad guys, until they are dead.
The Dark Hour is a wonderful, breath-taking novel of escape. No one could do what agents Fitzpatrick and Griffin do, or could they? This book was highly entertaining, and takes the reader into the world of "maybe it could happen."

The action never stops in this thriller by Robin Burcell, as CIA agent Zach Griffin escapes across the rooftops of Amsterdam's red light district, and special FBI agent Sydney Fitzpatrick narrowly escapes death when a vital witness is murdered. But with her skill as a forensic artist, Fitzpatrick has created a sketch that proves to be more important than she realized, when the woman in the sketch proves to be someone who supposedly died two years previously, and the wife of Zach Griffin.
Then a U.S. Senator is murdered as he is about to give a public speech. A mentally deranged suspect is soon arrested, but he conveniently commits suicide while in custody. Somehow the Senator's murder is connected to a deadly virus that could kill thousands, and agents risk their lives to infiltrate a remote Network compound in the Brazilian jungle. Agents Fitzpatrick and Griffin both work against time to find the virus before it can be used.
The Dark Hour contains a dizzying cast of characters that somehow manage to connect in a satisfying and unexpected conclusion. The characters are renegades and extreme risk-takers, but in the world of espionage, what else would they be? Along the way, the agents even have time to think of romance, which not surprisingly never seems to work out.
Agents from the FBI, CIA, MI6 and ATLAS ( a U.S. intelligence agency that works clandestinely outside and inside the country all fight against the evil of "the Network." And with the layers of intelligence agencies involved, as well as double agents and suspected double agents, it is often difficult to identify the bad guys, until they are dead.
The Dark Hour is a wonderful, breath-taking novel of escape. No one could do what agents Fitzpatrick and Griffin do, or could they? This book was highly entertaining, and takes the reader into the world of "maybe it could happen." ( )