Cold Zero

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Kasey’s mission was to exfiltrate a Chinese tech star who was under surveillance.  Beijing knew he had connected with the CIA and didn’t want to lose the tool he created, but, when they moved in, he used that tool to confuse them and give Kasey’s team time to get them out of the country.  What he didn’t plan for was his protégé using a tool of her own to bring down their plan in the middle of the Arctic Circle and put dozens of lives at risk.  Will Kasey be able to keep her mission on track or will the combined threats of the incoming Chinese forces and those from the environment of their new battleground be too much to overcome?

Best-selling novelists Brad Thor and Ward Larsen partner up to bring readers a fantastic spy craft thriller in Cold Zero.  Readers familiar with Thor’s Scott Harvath series or Larsen’s Assassin’s series will not be disappointed with this foray into new characters.  Pulling on Larsen’s Air Force experience and Thor’s Homeland Security background, the pair write a novel that, while not quite pulled from today’s headlines, could be from the headlines of the not-so-distant future.  This is a novel about worst case scenarios and the will to overcome them, even in the face of what appears to be a no-win setting.

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I give Cold Zero 4 out of 5 stars.  This was a solid 4 – it felt like there was something missing in several scenes.  It was almost as if the duo hadn’t quite polished their partnership and weren’t playing off each other’s writing as well as they could.  I have enjoyed both author’s independent writings so this was surprising.  The best scenes were those around aviation and military tactics.  Others, like standing outside in whatever clothing they found in the downed airliner for hours without experiencing frostbite or other health issues seemed like misses that should have been caught.  Also – explosions on ice would likely cause ice melt that would, temporarily be liquid and refreeze quickly at these temperatures causing additional challenges with mobility and wet clothing.  For two veteran writers with military experience, these were disappointing misses, but the overall plot and character development kept me hooked and wanting more.  So much so that I looked quickly after finishing the book to see if there were promises of a series.

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If you have enjoyed either writer’s other works, or if you’re a fan of novels like the Jack Ryan series, you will like this book.  I picked up this book on NetGalley because I recognized the writers’ other thriller works.  I’d also suggest this to readers interested in technology or the future of technology.  With a central theme of an airline crash, gun violence, and war, this may not be the best book for all readers and I would direct it to more mature readers over 16. 

Cold Zero will release on February 10^th.  Preorder yours today on our Bookshop.org page!

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: How to Be Okay with Nothing is Okay, Jenny Lawson
• Current audio book: 1984, George Orwell
• Book I’m most looking forward to: Revenge Prey, John Sandford