Kirkus Review
After a six-year hiatus since The First Order (2016), Sam Capra returns to help capture a traitor in this fast-paced thriller. Capra knows treason and betrayal on a personal level. He is a conscientious dad raising 13-year-old Daniel in Austin, alone (but for a nanny), while managing a multinational network of bars and working for the Federal Intelligence Analysis Office. Said feds ask him to keep an eye on Amanda Bolt, the daughter of Markus Bolt, a "traitorous piece of garbage" who "gutted a dozen operations at the CIA" and defected to Russia 13 years ago. Now the Russians can't find him either. Maybe he's back in the U.S. trying to reunite with abandoned Amanda. The Russians believe he's stolen a map detailing President Morozov's secret overseas financial accounts, so of course they want him dead. Bolt is trying to do a "traitor's dance" to find a safe haven and leave no trace behind. (Of course if he knew all the steps, there would be no story.) Meanwhile and much to Capra's shame, Lucy, his dead ex-wife and former CIA colleague, also betrayed the United States. Innocent Daniel knows nothing of mom's culpability or dad's secret work for the government, and Sam hopes to keep it that way. Good luck with that, because the lad is soon drawn into the mess without knowing how or why. "Daniel was worth all the pain in the world," Capra correctly muses--his son has character and guts, and he proves to be no pushover. There's plenty of gunplay, although nothing gory. Capra must beware the dreaded German hit woman Marianne, who even has trainee hit persons under her wing. There are a couple of curious questions of paternity that don't quite ring true, but no matter--it's still fast-paced entertainment. Plenty of twists and excitement all the way to the last line. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Abbott returns to the Sam Capra series, six years after The First Order. Sam is now living the single-dad life with his 13-year-old son in Austin, Texas. Publicly, Sam's the owner of a chain of bars. Privately, he's still a spy. When American traitor Markus Bolt vanishes from Moscow, Sam is assigned to keep an eye on the man's daughter. If Bolt shows up, Sam is to hand him over to his secret employer, Section K. It's a solid plan--until everything goes haywire. The sixth Sam Capra novel is like a reunion with an old friend. Sam is the same guy we always knew, an intelligence operative who can be ruthless, but he also possesses a strong sense of honor and fairness. He's trying to be a stand-up family man, which isn't always easy when his part-time job means keeping secrets from his son. The writing here is even sharper than it was in the earlier Capra novels, perhaps owing to Abbott's string of fine stand-alones in the interim that saw the author fine-tuning his craft. A must-read for Sam Capra fans.
Library Journal Review
Ten years after events in The First Order, the autonomous independent spy group called The Round Table has been disbanded, and Sam Capra contentedly manages bars and nightclubs worldwide while tending to his son. Then he gets a call that Marcus Bolt, the last of several U.S. traitors who turned over allied military secrets to the Russians, has disappeared from Moscow. Now Sam is asked to contact Marcus's estranged daughter to see what she knows. From three-time Edgar nominee Abbott, whose Sam Capra thriller The Last Minute won an International Thriller Writers Award; with a 25,000-copy first printing.
