High Treason

April 20, 2020
McFate’s uneven third Tom Locke novel (after 2017’s Deep Black with Bret Witter) finds mercenary Locke still in hiding after Brad Winters, his onetime boss at the military security firm Apollo Outcomes, betrayed him. The assassination of the U.S. vice president brings Locke back into action. All evidence points to Islamic terrorists, though Locke is convinced Apollo Outcomes is behind the assassination. Locke joins forces with FBI agent Jennifer Lin, who suspects Russian involvement in the attack, and his loyal former compatriots on a mission to take down Winters and his rogue covert army. Army veteran McFate offers little of the usual authenticity, with Apollo Outcomes simply a shadowy organization that fortuitously provides advanced weaponry, armor, and clichéd teammates. Lin has an intriguing background, but once she and Locke meet, she shrinks into a familiar girlfriend role, her story line with the FBI abruptly discarded. There’s action aplenty to please series fans, but this entry falls short of the high standard set by its predecessors. Agent: Peter McGuigan, Foundry Literary + Media.

May 1, 2020
A military contractor must unravel the mysterious assassination of the U.S. vice president. With extensive military experience in the 82nd Airborne Division and as a private contractor, McFate brings reliable authenticity to this next book about Tom Locke. While in exile in Israel, Locke learns that the American vice president was killed during an elaborately coordinated attack. Although most experts consider it an act of Islamic terrorism, Locke immediately suspects it's the handiwork of his former employer, a company of mercenaries known as Apollo Outcomes. To confirm his suspicions, Locke must get back inside his old company. But that means putting his life in the hands of former teammates who may have dubious loyalties. At the same time, renegade FBI agent Jennifer Lin has her own questions about the assassination. She immediately sees the imprint of an intricate Russian operation and, using her experience working in organized crime along with immense martial arts skills, starts an off-the-books investigation through a maze of underworld connections. Now, Lin and Locke must plow through the possible suspects, who include high-ranking Cabinet members, the Russian Mafia, and rogue mercenaries. Along the way, the reader is treated to a story bouncing from one action sequence to another. A realistic tour through political intrigue mixed with plenty of excitement from the frontline operators.

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May 15, 2020
Tom Locke, mercenary soldier and the lead in this high-concept thriller, must figure out who killed the U.S. vice president and his wife. Russians? Iraqis? No. Locke concludes the perpetrators belong to a mercenary group once outsourced to do dirty work for the U.S. government and, coincidentally, his former employer. As he works to expose them, a parallel story emerges: disgraced FBI agent Jennifer Lin seeks to prove that the Russians are to blame. This is prelude to a firestorm of action scenes crammed with thriller staples?chases, explosions, bullets?that are well done but a tad too long. The real meat lies in the scenes with the creeps at the heart of the plot, one of them with a familiar motive: "To do a little evil in order to achieve a greater good." This eyewash generates some mighty dialogue, as do the final scenes with the Illuminati-style aristocrats behind it all. Stock stuff, but it's all done with such energy and skill that action fans won't mind a bit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)