Full disclosure: I was given a free advance reader copy of this book by Author Marketing Experts in exchange for an honest review.
When people think of political action thrillers, they usually bring up Brad Thor. He has a great blend of suspense and political intrigue due to his experience in the Department of Homeland Security’s Analytic Red Cell Unit. However, there’s a new guy in the political thriller sphere, and his name is Richard E. Snyder. He’s a former intelligence officer and has written two books. One of them is Defector in Paradise. It’s an exciting title with memorable characters, and it’s effective in how it portrays the government handling the truth and people dealing with consequences.
Defector in Paradise is the second book in the “Owen Roberts” trilogy. The year is 2024, and a Russian agent is one step away from conquering the White House. Tragic circumstances force Owen to team up with a Russian defector to expose one of the Cold War’s last and biggest secrets: the identity of a high-level mole operating within the US government. After working as an intelligence officer for 20 years, Owen is no longer young and idealistic. He wants to be, but life in the world of espionage is beginning to wear on him. His career is going nowhere, and once again, he finds himself fighting against invisible forces he can’t control while he questions his own moral code. While he walks a dangerous path of death and destruction, he realizes that he has become the last man standing between the mole and the White House. What follows is a high-stakes game of cat and mouse fought at the highest levels of the intelligence community.
The first book in the trilogy is The Clandestine Education of Owen Roberts. While I haven’t read that one, I could see references to it in Defector in Paradise. Both can be read separately as well as together. Also, the latter does a great job setting up the third title, so I will certainly read the rest of the series when I have the chance.
I knew I had to read Defector in Paradise when I saw its tagline: “It’s 83⁰ and sunny with a chance of treason.”
It’s the kind of line that could be spoken by David Caruso in CSI: Miami, followed by the scream from “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who. Also, most of the novel is set in Fort Lauderdale, which further proves my point.
The book lives up to the hype for a variety of reasons. One of them includes the characters. Owen has worked as an intelligence officer for 20 years and has come to a crossroads. He tries to do the right thing even though that gets him trouble with his supervisors. He wants to save the nation without sacrificing the people around him because of the events in the previous title. This all reminded me of Top Gun: Maverick, in how the consequences factor more in the main characters’ decisions because of what happened in the past. It certainly gets tricky when he falls in love with Katya. Dimitri is the Russian defector that Owen has to protect and get help from. At first, he comes off like a stereotypical Russian with the way he speaks, how secretive he can be, and how often he offers vodka. Over time, I saw how much he cares about the people around him, especially his girlfriend Nathalie; Katya; and later, Owen.
Since Snyder was a former intelligence officer, he offers some unique insight into how the government handles the truth about certain things. He mainly does this with a character called “the deputy.” He is Owen’s supervisor and often gives him real-life advice about working for the government. Towards the end, he tells him about the House of Horrors – classified information so sensitive that if revealed, it would destroy the government. The deputy explains to Owen that it has to hide certain truths from the public to maintain trust and its legitimacy, even when people know about it. In other words, the government can’t be as transparent as citizens want it to be. This devastates Owen, and it would me, too, if I were in his shoes.
The aspect I truly enjoyed the most was its exploration of consequences. Every character has to deal with this at some point. In the beginning, Owen tries to save a friend while on a mission in Mozambique, but it fails and ends up being the catalyst for getting him transferred to protect Dimitri. Later on, Nathalie tells Owen about her life in Russia, her travels around the world, and the ways she protected Katya. She tries to rectify what she did. And, there’s the mole. I don’t want to give away too much about this person, but I will say this. This character participated in some salacious behavior, but instead of getting caught, Russian and East German spies took him in and “raised” him to have more confidence in himself. As a result, he developed a huge superior complex. My favorite part was when the mole got exposed at the Democratic National Convention. I love it when evil people get their comeuppance.
Defector in Paradise by Richard E. Snyder is a wonderfully intriguing novel. Snyder does well with defining characters and their conflicts, particularly with Owen. In addition, he does a great job with themes like how the government controls certain truths and consequences. I would recommend it to readers who love political action thrillers, especially by Brad Thor. I’m glad that it had a great hook because it was an enjoyable read.
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Book Reviews by a Chick Who Reads Everything 