Guest Review: The Spy Across the Table

Summary: In this exciting international thriller featuring Japanese antiques art dealer and PI Jim Brodie, a double-murder at the Kennedy Center forces Brodie into a dangerous game of espionage—putting him in the crosshairs of the Chinese, North Korean, and American governments.

Jim Brodie is an antiques dealer, Japan expert, and second-generation private investigator. When two theater friends are murdered backstage at a Kennedy Center performance in Washington, DC, he’s devastated—and determined to hunt down the killer. He’s not the only one.

After the attack, Brodie is summoned to the White House. The First Lady was the college roommate of one of the victims, and she enlists Brodie—off the books—to use his Japanese connections to track down the assassin. Homeland Security head Tom Swelley is furious that the White House is meddling and wants Brodie off the case. Why? For the same reason a master Chinese spy known only as Zhou, one of the most dangerous men alive, appears on the scene: Those murders were no random act of violence.

Brodie flies to Tokyo to attend the second of two funerals, when his friend’s daughter Anna is kidnapped during the ceremony. It is then Brodie realizes that the murders were simply bait to draw her out of hiding. Anna, it seems, is the key architect of a top-secret NSA program that gathers the personal secrets of America’s most influential leaders. Secrets so damaging that North Korea and China will stop at nothing to get them.

Publishers Weekly said, “Readers will want to see more of the talented Jim Brodie,” and The Spy Across the Table is an edge-of-your-seat thriller in Barry Lancet’s wildly popular and highly acclaimed series. -- Simon & Schuster

Booking Pap Pap is in Florida for winter and it seems like he's finally having some time to read! The latest novel is THE SPY ACROSS THE TABLE by Barry Lancet, and it sounds like it was a good one. I think he's read a few in this series and he seems to enjoy the writing and character development. Here are his thoughts:

THE SPY ACROSS THE TABLE is Barry Lancet's fourth book in his series featuring private investigator/antique dealer Jim Brodie as the main character. In this edition two of Brodie's friends, Mikey Dillman and Sharon Tanaka, are murdered during a Kabuki presentation at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Brodie feels some responsibility to track down the killer since he had arranged the meeting between his two friends. When Sharon's daughter, Anna, is abducted at her mother's funeral, Brodie realizes that the original killings were not a random act of violence. Anna is a software genius working for the NSA and holds many military and security secrets that would be of interest to enemies of the United States. Brodie's mission now changes. He must find Anna and safely return her to her family. Against his better judgement, Brodie finds it necessary to work with the U.S. government.

As in other Lancet novels, Brodie confronts several gangsters and spies. In this case he runs into Japanese gangs, a Chinese spy and unfriendly Homeland Security foes. Brodie travels from Washington to Japan to South Korea to North Korea to China as he follows the trail to Anna's whereabouts. In his pursuit of Anna, Brodie puts himself into a precarious situation and puts his life in real danger.

As with other novels of the series, Lancet includes great character development, a lot of great fight scenes and good old fashioned detective work. In THE SPY ACROSS THE TABLE, Lancet deals with current events including electronic spying and the American, North Korea and China relationships. The author's detail of human trafficking along the Chinese-North Korean border is very informative. Lancet also does his normal good job of providing excellent information on Asian art, history and culture.

THE SPY ACROSS THE TABLE is a timely, intriguing and educational thriller that should be of interest to those who enjoy the thrIller genre.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy of this novel and to Booking Pap Pap for his review.