Deep Sleep by Steven Konkoly
Wednesday, February 2, 2022 at 2:53AM 
Published by Thomas & Mercer on February 1, 2022
Deep Sleep is a “Russian sleeper network” story, a throwback to the days when spy thrillers focused on villains in Russia rather than China or the Middle East. The story does not end in the final chapter, so readers should be prepared to commit to reading at least one more book if they want to read a complete story.
The protagonist is Devin Gray. He’s a former FBI agent who now works in a private firm called MINERVA. (Other all-cap names of the kind that spy thriller writers love include DEVTEK and CONTROL). Gray’s mother Helen was a long-time operative of the CIA but she lost her job after she came to be seen as “psychotically paranoid.” And here I thought being psychotically paranoid was a job requirement.
Anyway, Helen kidnaps a man named Wilson and apparently kills a deputy sheriff before shooting herself. The reader will see that she didn’t kill the deputy but she definitely kidnaps Wilson and does some killing before she dies.
Gray’s mother had the foresight to send Gray messages that would be delivered in the event of her death. The messages take him to one of the few people who appeared at Helen’s funeral, a former CIA colleague named Karl Berg. From beyond the grave, Helen doles out clues to the location of a safehouse where, after a journey that occupies the first quarter of the novel, Gray and Berg find a room filled with files and surveillance photos.
The evidence that Gray’s mother assembled points to an ambitious Russian project. Not only did Russia place an unknown but large number of sleeper agents in the US back in the Soviet era, it made sure that the agents would breed, producing a second and possibly a third generation of loyal Russian spies. Now, everyone understands that American kids rebel against their parents. Instilling loyalty for Russia in kids who grow up as western materialists seems unlikely. Steven Konkoly tries to overcome that problem by sending the sleeper families to an annual summer camp near Branson, where loyalty to the motherland is reinforced. Kids who don’t get with the program (and parents who stray) end up at the bottom of a lake.
The story isn’t particularly credible but maybe it doesn’t need to be. This is an action story that hinges on surveillance drones and chases and shootouts and exploding helicopters. Credibility is an afterthought. At least Konkoly recognized the unlikely nature of his plot and tried to do something about it. Readers who enjoy the story can pretend he succeeded.
The other person who comes to Helen’s funeral is Marnie Young, a Marine helicopter pilot who is Gray’s good buddy and a potential love interest. Naturally, when it comes time to assemble a group to travel to Branson and check out the summer camp, Marnie tags along. Naturally, her ability to fly a helicopter turns out to be fortuitous.
Nothing much happens in this installment beyond setups and shootouts. We learn about some players in Russia. We meet the team of interchangeable mercenaries assembled by Berg. None of them, and for that matter none of the characters, including Gray, have any hint of a personality. After the action in Branson, the story fizzles out as Konkoly dumps another round of details that will presumably drive the next installment.
This installment is easy to read and the action is moderately entertaining, although there’s nothing in Deep Sleep that thriller fans will not have encountered many times before. Some of the book feels padded, likely because the premise doesn’t warrant multiple books. Maybe I will revise my thinking after (and if) I read the second installment. My guarded recommendation at this point is based on Konkoly's crisp writing style and his ability to hold my interest in a plot that would have been more timely during the Cold War.
RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS
