Traitor's Dance by Jeff Abbott

Published by Grand Central Publishing on August 23, 2022

The Sam Capra novels have grown stronger as the series has progressed. Traitor’s Dance is one of the best entries. While Traitor’s Dance can be read as a stand-alone novel, series fans will benefit from the context that earlier novels provide. This one takes place several years after the story that developed in the first five books.

Marcus Bolt is an American traitor, a spy who defected to Russia. The CIA gets word that Bolt has eluded his Russian minders. They think he might try to reenter the US, despite his knowledge that the American intelligence community would be happy to shoot him on sight. Bolt has an estranged wife and daughter in Miami. The CIA thinks Bolt might want to contact them, although they both blame Bolt for his son’s suicide, a death his son deemed preferable to living as the son of a traitor.

Sam works as a “fixer” for an ultra-secret branch of the CIA. He is tasked with keeping an eye on Bolt’s daughter Amanda and with capturing or killing Bolt if he tries to contact her.

Sam relates to Amanda. Having been married to a woman who betrayed the interests of the US by advancing the cause of a criminal organization with terrorist ties, Sam understands what it means to have a traitor in the family. He has been keeping his wife’s true nature a secret from his son Daniel, but Daniel is beginning to realize that stories he has been told about his mother don’t add up. When he is contacted by a woman who claims to be his aunt, he willingly listens to her stories about his mother. The woman, of course, has ulterior motives, as Daniel discovers when he is kidnapped.

Abbott creates atmosphere with Miami’s population of Russians in Sunny Isles Beach, also known as Little Moscow. Russian oligarchs with luxury condos and their need for money laundering services play a key role in the story.

Jeff Abbott assembles a large cast to tell this story. While it is built on the framework of Bolt's potential return to the US and the reaction of various governments and criminals to Bolt's actions, much of the tension surrounds Sam’s attempt to Daniel from pain.

Family relationships are central to the plot. One of the characters is convinced that Bolt was framed and that Bolt can prove the innocence of his father, who embezzled money from the CIA. A British spy believes her husband was killed by one of the characters. Questions arise about the true identities of the fathers of two key characters. Family relationships tie into the theme of betrayal, a theme that binds many of the characters. Betrayal of a spouse or child is similar in many ways to betrayal of a government, a point that characters make repeatedly.

The plot is tight despite its many moving parts. The story moves quickly despite its attention to detail. The novel closes a chapter in Sam’s life but it appears to open a couple of others. New novels will be welcomed by readers who waited six years to find out what is happening in Sam’s life.

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An Ambush of Widows by Jeff Abbott

Published by Grand Central Publishing on July 6, 2021

The plot of An Ambush of Widows is about 70% believable. That’s probably average for modern crime novels. In one scene, the driver of a moving car tries to shoot a character who is standing inside a restaurant. The shooter just isn’t the kind of person who would be stupid enough to think that (a) the shooting will be successful or (b) the driver of a vehicle in urban traffic is likely to avoid the police after attempting an assassination. More than a few relationships between characters, some of which are kept secret, are difficult to believe. Some of those are too coincidental to be credible. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the story and that’s what counts.

The premise seems simple. A woman in New Orleans gets a call from her husband’s cellphone. The caller advises the woman that her husband has been killed in Austin. Who called her and why? Who killed her husband and why? The woman, Kirsten North, suspects the call is a prank because her husband Henry is in New York. When she can’t reach Henry, she looks at the news in Austin and discovers that there were, in fact, two recent murders in the same Austin warehouse. One of the victims is unidentified. Kirsten immediately flies to Austin to investigate. Most rational wives would call the police before booking the flight on the theory that the police should know about the call immediately. Kirsten’s failure to do so creates the yet another credibility issue.

Henry is, if fact, one of the murder victims. Henry owns a small computer security business. The other victim is Adam Zhang, a wealthy partner in an investment group that develops high tech businesses. Kirsten knows of no connection between the two men. Neither does Flora Zhang, Adam’s wife. Kirsten decides to ferret out that connection with the help of her former foster brother, Zach Couvillon.

The seemingly simple plot will eventually invite the reader to make charts and diagrams as it becomes more complex. Keeping track of the various ways in which characters are connected to each other, often unknowingly, is something of a chore, but that’s not unusual in novels of this nature.

Kirsten’s backstory as a foster child occupies a good chunk of the novel and adds to its complexity. Suffice it to say that her foster dad was not the nice guy Kirsten believed him to be. Kirsten’s teen years include a dramatic episode involving Zach, her foster parents, and Henry (who was her neighbor at that point). The drama eventually shapes the events that follow, although Kirsten doesn’t understand all of the ways in which that will be true.

All of those characters and others — from Adam’s live-in cousin to the incredibly polite homeless man who finds the bodies — play a role and could be murder suspects. Planted evidence adds to the threat that an innocent person will be blamed. The police suspect Kirsten or Flora because the spouse is always guilty, but the reader knows that Kirsten was in New Orleans and couldn’t have killed Henry. Everyone else is fair game. The reveal again tested my willingness to suspend disbelief, but Jeff Abbott doesn’t cross the line between implausibility and impossibility.

As Kirsten plays sleuth, she sneaks around and unearths clues with unlikely success. Those scenes create a bit of tension, but the action only creates a true sense of danger near the novel’s end. Also near the end, a character steals a computer from a house filled with security guards with no explanation of how he accomplished that feat. I felt a bit cheated by that.

While Kirsten benefits from the greatest degree of character development, a contract killer who becomes a key character spends much of his time worrying about getting home in time to be with his wife as she gives birth. I enjoyed the incongruity of an apparent sociopath’s concern about being a good husband. Zach, on the other hand, could have used a bit more character development, given his importance to the story.

The plot is unnecessarily convoluted and depends too much on coincidental or secret relationships. Still, the story held my interest until the action ended. The last several pages are devoted to an expository explanation of how all the loose ends tie together. Some of that seemed a bit contrived. Fortunately, the fun of trying to puzzle out the story’s various mysteries outweighs the novel’s flaws. And the very last chapter, a short one, contains an out of the blue surprise that overcame any reservations I had about the story’s weaknesses.

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Blame by Jeff Abbott

Published by Grand Central Publishing on July 18, 2017

Blame is often assigned as a way to avoid the powerless feeling that comes from accepting that tragic events are usually beyond our control. Bad things happen, but the pain of living with that reality is displaced by anger if we can blame someone for the tragedy. That, at least, is one theory of blame advanced in a novel that explores blame from several perspectives.

Jane Norton was in a car accident when she was seventeen. Two years later, she has no memory of the crash or of much of her life during the three years before the crash. David Hall died in the same accident. David’s mother and most of his friends blame Jane for his death because of a note that was found at the crash scene. Someone using the name Liv Danger has hacked Jane’s social media site and is threatening to reveal the truth about her role in David’s death — a truth Jane does not herself know. The words ALL WILL PAY appear in Liv Danger’s message. It’s also chalked on David’s gravestone on the anniversary of his death.

Jane is soon caught in a web of deceit as individuals (some of whom she trusts) appear to be withholding information or lying to her, including her mother, a girl who claims to have been her best friend before the accident, a couple of boys who may or may not have been her boyfriend before the accident, a private detective who investigated the accident, and a psychology student.

This is the kind of novel where a number of violent crimes are committed and each time, suspicion falls on the protagonist. The reader, like Jane, is challenged to figure out who is responsible for the mayhem, why it is taking place, which of the characters are telling Jane the truth, which characters are lying, and why the liars are deceiving her.

Jeff Abbott handles all of that with skill. A reader might guess some aspects of the novel’s resolution but I doubt that most readers will figure out the roles played by all the characters before Abbott reveals them. Abbott didn’t quite sell me on the motivations of certain characters, but stretching credulity for the sake of delivering a surprising story is a common feature of modern thrillers and, at least in this case, not one that greatly diminished my reading pleasure.

The plot is intricate and it generally held my interest, although the story is a bit drawn out, creating an uneven pace that builds suspense but lets it dissipate. I suspect this novel could have been 50 to 100 pages shorter without omitting anything crucial. The ending also leans toward melodrama. Everything resolves too neatly, delivering a form of justice to the characters who deserved it in a way that seems too convenient.

Blame has value beyond the plot. The real target of Blame is small town pettiness, the gossipy judgment that is viral in cloistered communities, as residents take secret (or open) delight in the embarrassment of others. Abbott also targets “confessional” bloggers who make celebrities of their family members (as does the writer of a mommy blog) without considering how that exposure will affect the child. I enjoyed reading Blame for those background themes almost as much as I enjoyed the plot ... maybe more.

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The First Order by Jeff Abbott

Published by Grand Central Publishing on January 5, 2016

Unlike many thriller series, the Sam Capra books are maintaining their quality. I was unimpressed with the first Capra novel, but the quality of subsequent books (unlike a couple of Sam Capra short stories) has been consistent.

Earlier novels in this series developed Sam Capra’s platonic relationship with Milla, the woman who helped him rescue his child and who handles Sam for a mysterious organization, and with Milla’s husband Jimmy, who feels threated by Sam. The relationship triangle plays an intense role in the early stages of The First Order, forcing Milla to make a difficult choice about whether to betray her husband or her best friend.

Another subplot that developed in earlier novels involves Sam’s search for a brother who might or might not be dead. That storyline takes center stage in The First Order. It merges with the Milla-Jimmy-Sam triangle in a way that gives the series a good shake.

A third plot thread that initially appears to be unrelated involves an assassin who calls himself Philip Judge. Judge has been assigned to kill the Russian president. It is not an assignment that Judge can refuse. About midway through the story, we learn something about Philip Judge that ties all of the plot threads together.

Various characters operate at cross-purposes as the novel steams along, interfering with each other’s plans in a way that creates unexpected plot twists while fueling the novel’s action. I often have trouble with farfetched plots but this one moves so smoothly that nothing seems forced. Action scenes do not push the boundaries of credibility beyond that which is common in modern thrillers. In any event, the story is fast-moving and fun.

The First Order closes a chapter in Sam’s life and opens another. It promises to give the series something of a fresh start, which is always a good idea after the first few books. Whether the series will stay fresh remains to be seen, but this installment is one that should satisfy Sam Capra fans.

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Inside Man by Jeff Abbott

Published by Grand Central Publishing on July 1, 2014

A woman walks into a bar. That could be the opening line of a joke, but it's also a logical opening of a Sam Capra novel, given the number of bars that Sam owns. This one is a dive near Miami. Sam's friend, who used to work security, is meeting the woman because he's doing an unspecified job for her. When the friend gets shot, the woman's problem becomes Sam's. The woman vanishes but Sam isn't someone who lets go of a mystery, particularly one that involves a friend.

The mystery takes Sam to Puerto Rico where he reengages with the woman and becomes involved with her family. There is a dirty side to the family business and enough family drama to power a television miniseries. Whether someone in the family killed Sam's friend is the central mystery, but as Sam gets drawn more deeply into the power struggle that preoccupies the family members, he has additional mysteries to solve. Before he learns the answers, he finds himself in a predicament that echoes the classic television series The Prisoner.

The story is full of action but none of it is mindless. The mysterious Round Table and the mysterious Mila, his Round Table contact, work their way into the story, causing Sam (and the reader) to wonder again about the Round Table's true agenda. That theme fades into the background after providing some tantalizing clues about the Round Table's true nature. A neat surprise at the end also sets up a plotline that will probably be advanced in the next installment.

I wasn't a fan of Adrenaline, the first Sam Capra novel, but the novels have steadily improved since then. Inside Man is the best of them. While it doesn't add much to existing characters, it delivers the strongest story in the series.

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