Title: Vendetta
Author: Iris Johansen
Release date: 10/23/18
Pages: 413
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Rating: 3/5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read the eARC of Vendetta in exchange for an honest review. This was an honor!
In the 5th Catherine Ling thriller, a team of intelligence operatives must work together to locate and bring down the Red Star terorrist group before they wreak havoc on the west coast. I was expecting to see more of Catherine, but she plays a supporting role to Rachel Venable (Carl's daughter) and they make a strong female team. Brandon, Hu Chang, Nate, Monty, and Cameron make up a great supporting cast of characters. I found the characters to be one of the strong points in the book - their relationships and access to international intrigue.
The part that threw me off was how many times she used "jerkily" and "dryly." Those words are good once, maybe twice in a novel but stand out FAR too much to be used that frequently, and I know that Johansen has a fantastic vocabulary to pull from. Speaking of the fantastic - Cameron threw me off as well, where does one supernatural(ish) man fit into the world? He really does not and I feel like it takes away from the books.
The plot itself was another strong point in the novel. I love the deep level of intrigue (see I did the repeating a strong word thing there, and I bet you noticed) between the CIA, Red Star, Nemesis, and the various other groups trying to vie for information and results. The problem was that there was too much talking, sitting around the house, chatting on the veranda.... The background is interesting and important but there is just too much of it, then the action came and went rather quickly. Very awesome and intense action though, another strong point.
Overall I would rate it 3/5 stars and recommend it to Johansen fans. It does work as a stand alone novel but doesn't do Catherine a lot of justice so I wouldn't start with it.
Again, thank you NetGalley and the aforementioned, I really was thrilled to be able to read and review this!
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