Operator, by David Vinjamuri

This novel features hero Mike Herne, a former special ops guy who's now an intelligence analyst.  Herne gets caught up in a mystery in his home town, and brings his skills to bear in a reasoned and nuanced way.   Mr. Vinjamuri's given us an interesting and likable hero who actions are sufficiently modest and nearly credible enough to bring this novel to the top of the genre.

Highly recommended.  I'm eager for Mr. Vinjamuri to publish another novel.

Cloud Cover, by David Iseminger

Luke Durant is an undercover agent placed in a cloud computing firm to monitor suspicious activity.  He gets caught up in a complex scheme to pull information from the cloud and use it to manipulate public figures.  There is plenty of action and adventure - and surprisingly little meaningful or credible information technology discussion.  But that's forgiven in this interesting novel.

Assassin Trilogy, by Derek Haas

This set includes the novels "The Silver Bear," "Columbus," and "Dark Men," a series featuring the assassin named Columbus.   (I guess the last assassin story I read put me in the mood.)

Columbus is not a nice man.  And he is, after all, a paid killer.   There is little about him that is sympathetic, perhaps until the very end of "Dark Men."

But the writing is good, the story is interesting, and as a set this forms an enjoyable long suspenseful novel.

Night of the Assassin, by Russell Blake

This novel is a prequel to King of Swords, providing the back story for "El Rey" (the assassin).   It was entertaining and interesting.   Although it feels odd to root for the bad guy, since El Rey's targets are exclusively drug kingpins in Mexico, being sympathetic to the killer was easy.

This isn't great literature, but if you can get it at a discounted Kindle edition price, it is worth the read.

The Night Ranger, by Alex Berenson

This novel continues the series around espionage hero John Wells.   He's retired now, but takes on a hostage situation in Africa as a favor to his son.   The book was well written and interesting, but annoyed me because it needed a wrap-up chapter at the end.  There was a lack of symmetry: plenty of background at the beginning to set the context for the story, but far too little closure at the end in terms of the main characters and how things tied out for them.

Utopia, Texas, by Michael Glasscock

This novel asks, "What happens when men of principle become men of violence?"   The hero is a game warden, former veterinarian, who is working on overcoming his own sadness.   The plot and character development are good.   The writing still is unusually stilted:  short descriptive sentences that are perfect for business memos but lack texture for a novel.   Still, I recommend the book.

The Racketeer, by John Grisham

This is a very enjoyable book.   Great plot, solid writing.  A pleasure to read.

I can't give away too much because I want to avoid spoiling the complex story.   The hero, Malcolm, is an attorney, unjustly convicted of a white collar crime that he didn't commit, and in prison.   In a seemingly unrelated event, a federal judge is murdered, and Malcolm knows who did it.

From that point forward, fasten your seatbelt and cancel your appointments as you'll be reading this until the end.

The Last Man, by Vince Flynn

This is the 9th in Mr. Flynn's series of spy novels featuring the heroic Mitch Rapp.   Just yesterday I told someone I'd grade this novel C+.   Why so low?

An A grade in this genre would have compelling character development, terrific writing, and a great plot.   This book has an okay plot.   There's a significant surprise midway through (don't worry, I won't spoil it), and yet Mr. Flynn did nothing to develop the character and explain his decisions.   This left a big gap in understanding the plot progression.

Similarly, (a minor spoiler now) when Rapp has a head injury, there was a great opportunity to use his recovery to really develop the character beyond the comic book hero.  Instead, he passed on this, leaving us with a paper cutout main character who, let me yawn as this is so trite, is violent (but only to bad guys), and has no patience for discussion (especially with liberals or people who want to think things through, both of whom are always shown to be either corrupt or extraordinarily incompetent).

So many missed opportunities for great writing!

Still, it is an okay grade.  Partly because the competition in this genre is typically no better, and partly because it was a slightly enjoyable read (albeit maddening at times).

Bottom line: if you're into this kind of thing, and have invested in reading the prior books in the series, you'd might as well read this one.  But I'd go to the library or used book store rather than shelling out full price for this novel.

Storm Front, by Jim Butcher

This is Mr. Butcher's first in his series of Dresden Files novels.  The hero, Harry Dresden, is a wizard.  He's a good guy, works with the police, and tries to help people.   Unfortunately, it seems to be in vogue for the hero to have flaws, and Dresden's flaws are numerous.  So much so that they go, at least for me, beyond the line of cute and fully into the sphere of annoying.

The plot was interesting.  The character set was rather hackneyed.  And my continued lack of empathy for the main character is what leads to my so-so review of the book, and my decision to not bother reading the rest of Mr. Butcher's series.

The Devil You Know, by Mike Carey

Apparently Mr. Carey has a successful series of books featuring this novel's hero, Fix Castor, who is an exorcist in London.   (His day job is writing comic books for Marvel, such as X-Men .)  Perhaps if I was really excited about the ghostly genre I'd too be a fan.  But I'm neither a fan of the genre nor of this book.

In fact, I found it quite difficult to read.  The hero is not easy to like, but worse, the writing is a challenge because it did not draw me in at all.   On the plus side, it is a mystery, and I was almost interested in who did it.