The Breaker

November 30, 2020
At the start of Thriller Award winner Petrie’s disappointing fifth Peter Ash novel (after 2020’s The Wild One), the PTSD-afflicted Iraq War vet is having coffee at Milwaukee’s Public Market with his buddy Lewis, a fellow vet, when a bearded man walks past with an assault rifle peeking out from under his jacket. Concerned the gunman might launch an attack, Peter and Lewis follow him, but he only tries to steal a man’s phone; Peter and Lewis thwart the robbery, but he escapes. The gunman turns out to be a young woman in disguise—Spark, a high-tech genius out to get revenge on techno-lord Vincent Holloway, an amoral megalomaniac who stole a valuable invention of hers. Peter ends up trying to save Spark from Holloway, who dispatches a creepy henchman to capture her. Petrie expertly handles the rotating points of view, but the big finale—an extended shoot-out between Peter’s gang and an army of Holloway’s lethal, highly intelligent robots—isn’t entirely persuasive. The action, supercharged with 007-style threats, builds to a rather abrupt conclusion. Series fans will hope that Peter returns to his old-school heroism next time around. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary.

As the Peter Ash series continues, the quiet life that former Marine Peter is trying to achieve with his girlfriend, June, and his friend, Lewis, comes to a sudden halt. The three find themselves embroiled in a chase to stop an evil, narcissistic force and his sociopathic henchman. Narrator Stephen Mendel crafts the story with individual voices that reflect the characters' personalities. June comes across as strong-willed, while Peter remains fairly calm. His pal, Lewis, is given an identifiable deep voice. Minor characters are well done--especially Edgar, whose flat, slightly higher-pitched voice reflects his lack of a conscience. Listeners may actually look forward to scenes with Edgar solely for his voice. As the thriller mixes in AI, Mendel does well with machines, too. M.B. � AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine