The Deserter

Starred review from July 29, 2019
This outstanding thriller from bestseller DeMille (The Cuban Affair) and his screenwriter son centers on a search for an Army deserter who has fled to Venezuela after escaping duty in Afghanistan under strange circumstances. On the hunt for Delta Force Capt. Kyle Mercer are Scott Brodie, a hardened ex-soldier with impulsive, rogue tendencies, and Maggie Taylor, a cunning by-the-book Army cop who does her best to rein in Brodie’s urges, both investigative and sexual. Brodie, the senior officer, quickly suspects his commanders aren’t telling him everything about Mercer; his desertion may have less to do with disobedience than his knowing too much about military atrocities in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, Brodie and Taylor track Mercer to a jungle hideout far outside Caracas, where he’s training a group of mercenaries with the apparent backing of President Maduro. In typical DeMille fashion, the last hundred pages move along like a ballistic missile, exploding in a satisfying finale on a remote airstrip. DeMille and son provide it all in this rumble through the jungle—authentic detail, lively dialogue, a vividly drawn setting, and an exhilarating plot. Agents: Jenn Joel and Sloan Harris, ICM Partners.

Go-to narrator Scott Brick delivers this first installment of a planned trilogy featuring Army CIS officer Scott Brodie and his partner, Maggie Taylor. The pair are in Venezuela looking for Delta Force deserter Kyle Mercer. Brick narrates in his usual breathless style, which is perfectly suited to this page-turning thriller, coauthored by father and son. The plot takes a while to get going, with numerous false starts and wrong turns, but the characters' one-liners--delivered with great timing by Brick--keep the pace up. While the elements of character, plot, and setting don't always hold together, the descriptions of a country ravaged by corruption are oddly mesmerizing, especially as delivered by Brick. L.W.S. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine