No Survivors

January 5, 2009
Set in 1998, Cain’s solid sequel to his debut, The Accident Man
(2008), finds assassin Samuel Carver recovering in a private Swiss hospital from being brutally tortured. Unable to remember who he is or what he’s done in the past, he’s being cared for by his girlfriend, Alix Petrova, a former Russian spy. Meanwhile, oilman Waylon McCabe, who’s dying of cancer, decides he must bring on nuclear Armageddon so he can ascend to heaven in the Rapture. Lt. Gen. Kurt Vermulen has been trying to alert the U.S. government to the dangers of a small terrorist group known as al Qaeda, but no one will listen except the evil McCabe, who soon has the gullible Vermulen attempting to snag one of about a hundred suitcase nukes the Russians have secreted around the world. Eventually, Carver comes to his senses and sets out to find Alix, who’s left his bedside on her old bosses’ orders to seduce Vermulen. Most thriller fans will enjoy this roller-coaster action adventure ride.

The story begins with a whirlwind of characters and incidents with little regard for their relationships. But slowly, carefully, they come together, and the story builds to a crescendo of complex emotions, action, and adventure. Narrator John Lee's British accent lends an air of realism to the story of a tortured espionage agent who rouses from a coma to rescue the woman he loves, only to discover her apparent betrayal. Lee delivers the accents of a repressed Russian spy, a Texas religious fanatic, and a Rhodesian mercenary, among others, making immersion into this novel a delight for the listener. Author Tom Cain spares no quarter in painting his hero's complicated psyche as he tries to rescue the woman he loves and save the world. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine