Fatal Intrusion by Jeffrey Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

Carmen Sanchez, a Homeland Security agent, is out for blood. She is usually by-the-book, but this time it’s personal. Her sister Selina was attacked, and it seems to be connected to another murder. The attacker was slick and her sister was lucky to fight him off. She did notice a tattoo of a spider, however.

 

As Carmen deviates from her usual procedural ways, she uncovers more about the attacker and his ties, but this now ventures into technical territory she has no clue about. Cue Jack Heron, a professor of intrusion and security expert who knows a little thing or two about finding people behind the layers of the web.

 

But layers are what they are going to find, as each clue uncovered unearths something even more sinister and the connection seems out of reach. Will procedure or by the cuff prove to be the right choice?

 

Since the story takes place over seventy-two hours, the action is full-on from the beginning. Some might even say it was a little too much and a tad unbelievable to have things figured out so easily and slotted into place so nicely. I just read it for the adventure it was meant to be and enjoyed it.

 

The relationship between Carmen and Selina was interesting as the strain between them as well as the strain between Jake and Carmen ran parallel and had to intersect at some point. I was somewhat hazy over some of Jake and Carmen’s backstory as things offered to the reader can be interpreted differently.

 

The parts about the dark sites were actually quite scary in that there are so many layers of things happening out there and no matter how much we think we keep things private, there are lots of people able to find them and have an influence over them based on their own beliefs.

 

The technical stuff got pretty intense and considering the internet (as we know it) is relatively new, technology has broadened in leaps and bounds. In some ways a good thing, in some ways not.

 

The one thing that made me raise my eyebrows was the error in the casino. Maybe it was a play on words and done deliberately, but the bet on a roulette table that covers three numbers and pays 11:1 is called a street and not a streak. If done deliberately, this will have a number of readers in the know shaking their heads.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the story for what it was, even though some things got figured out as easily as they did. When you need to read just one more chapter, you know it’s a good thing. I’ve been a Deaver fan for years and this didn’t disappoint. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the book.

Benetton by Francesco della Barba

Francesco della Barba is the key player in this tale of the shaping of the Benetton brand and their expansion in geographical territories and other areas like F1.

 

I was hoping for a story filled with intrigue and glamour, but I felt the story jumped all over the place. Not just with the timeline but also with the characters (some who are named but never introduced and some who appear only briefly). A lot of personal information was given in the story about the author that did not necessarily have to do with the idea behind the book. I felt it didn’t move the story forward and seemed instead like a book about the author. For example, he spent a lot of time discussing how he felt about the differences between Italian road rules and English road rules – rather odd and nothing to do with the company. And while telling the reader how people have affairs in Dubai it might have seemed interesting additional information, it came across rather flippantly and had nothing to do with Benetton itself.

 

A lot was offered about sales and stores and buyouts but the narrative did not feel cohesive. If it had followed a timeline and his involvement in the timeline, it would have made more sense. I was quite looking forward to the parts about the F1 involvement but very little was said about this. What he does explain well are the egos and decisions based on tradition instead of forward thinking.

 

What really let this book down was the grammar usage (which got worse as the book went on), punctuation errors, and incorrect words used. There was a lot of passive voice and saying things like “the car of my uncle” or “I asked to the agent”. Words were used that I couldn’t even work out the error like “he was discontinue in his behaviour” – was this meant to mean that his behaviour lacked continuity? Then there were the outright incorrect words like “weather (whether) you bought it in London” or “waving (waiving) the ticket” but the best was the “walking (walk-in) refrigerator”.

 

I had high hopes for this book but it was disjointed and since it was so short, lacked the full impact the author may have had on the brand.

 

Many thanks to Loudhailer Books for the opportunity to review the book.

 

It gets an average three out of five quills from me.