Ok! The mysterious nature of this book is impressive and the hold of the narrative on the first chapter even more so. By the second, the questions grow and keep growing as we are just given a whiff of what may possibly be happening, which makes this book gripping from the start!

We have some kind of very advanced governmental agency, the MCU2, with some serious tech and action power, trying to keep somebody safe, Dr. Veda, but right from the start we are bombarded with disappearances and even drugging, loss of data and we, the readers and the MCU2 know nothing of substance! This is how you start a book! Super cool by Dean Comyn.

The narrative is swift and the words run through the pages while you are being flooded with new info, and getting to know who is who and what is what, very slowly and steadily getting a clearer idea of what is in stake. That mysterious, and apparently humble scientist could be involved in something way bigger than first impressions give and there are people that want him, for reasons yet unknown, but surely not benign. Is he part of the whole plot? Is he a victim? Who is behind all of this and above all, where is Dr. Veda that seemed to disappear from thin air?

The MCU2 is a new  intelligence and crime investigation agency, MCU2 ,commanded by Wayne, Detective Chief Inspector John C. Wayne , that is faced with the choices of doing this by himself and his team or start pulling strings and risk reputation, legitimacy, and possibly the whole operation, because they are not yet…. “as operational” , and as “established” as other intelligence governmental units, which poses a problem in operations, although they have lots of authority and resources. So, a missing scientist, a hack on the systems of London’s surveillance systems, the mysterious Estonian beauty and girlfriend of the scientist are the clues that they have to work with.

If you like to read about special ops and intelligence agencies, I will tell you to not leave this one out of your list because there is so much detail about the inner-workings of the operations, the conflicts between agencies, the possible complications that bureaucracy might lead if DCI Wayne asks for help from MI5 or other agencies and how they are also somehow in the shadows of everything behind this, very close, and waiting to strike. You can actually feel the tension and the weight of making decisions on DCI Wayne as the book progresses, and we get to understand why he withholds so much from Burns, and even some of the big names on the team he assembled. It’s very nice.

We have a very detailed, thought-out and planned book, as the amount of little things around the story is huge, the tiny decisions, implications, thought-patterns, it all seems as if the writer wants the reader to focus intently on the book and imagine every single color and moment of action of the characters. Impressive.

The description of sensations is excellent! Dean Comyn makes you imagine the sensations of the characters by both letting you know what is happening and how they react to that and also by describing the sensations and giving analogies in order for us to pin-point the sensation vividly! VEEEEERY nice.

Dean Comyn, takes time to explain mentally each character while advancing with the story, and letting us know the mental inner-workings of each of them, allowing us to get a solid sense of who is who and to construct a clear profile of how they behave, their roles and their personal motivations, which makes the book more engaging and interesting because not many writers go this deep in character construction without upsetting the plot.

The emotional state of the characters is given a detailed and discreet attention by the author. Dean describes both the mental part of the emotions of the characters and how they manifest on their body language, but what pops to the eye, is how well this whole thing is sewed into the motions of the story as if it was just another part of the scenery, yet it gives an extra layer of believability to the story and increases the grit and the entertainment level of the story itself. Another point for this book and Dean!

The action will make you fly over the pages, but the ever-present mystery is the thing about this book.

There are so many things left to say, so many things that the writer deliberately didn’t tell us and didn’t want to tell us yet, but the book isn’t lacking in plot and there are no plot-holes. If you stop and think about it, it is something very hard to do, to keep out tons of information from the readers and not damage the story while doing so, and in fact, making the story feel complete. We have got to give Dean Comyn some extra points for that as he drags us to the next book of the series with the amount of questions that are still left to answer and mysteries that there are still to solve like: where is the pig? What are the bad guys trying to do with the work of Dr. Veda? Why haven’t they been more active? Who are they really and why did they left the Dr. out of it all? So many questions, and still two or more books to read.

I get it that Dean Comyn used this initial book as the intro for the whole series and wanted to give off a solid foundation for the whole series and allow the reader plenty of time to adjust to the amount of mystery and thriller of the book, that is counter-balanced with a high dosage of humour, so this can be seen as the perfect intro-chapter of this series that promises, a lot in the next books, so keep your eyes peeled and grab your copy. XD

Pros:

• Excellent descriptive ability, excellent descriptions, vivid imagery
• Excellent show of each characters working, both mental and physical
• Excellent character dynamics and interactions
• Excellent mystery. You will know only what the writer wants you to know
• Great plot progression
• Great humor throughout the book. There are serious moments that are cut with stupid observations from our main character
• A story that will keep you asking questions untill the end, and not give you enough answers for you to be satisfied with just one book

Cons:

• There is one or two passages on the book that seem to be repeated

Lesson of the story: “Follow the Fox”

Favorite Characters: Burns and DCI Wayne

Cover Score: 8.5/10

Book Score: 8.8/10

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