Burning Bright

October 17, 2016
In Petrie’s gripping if somewhat padded sequel to 2016’s The Drifter, veteran of the war in Afghanistan and former Marine lieutenant Peter Ash seeks solace in the Northern California redwood forests. Instead, Peter finds a hostile grizzly bear and must escape by climbing a tree. To his amazement, he discovers an elaborate network of ropes and platforms high in the treetops—the creation of June Cassidy, an athletic, attractive journalist who’s hiding out from a menacing group of ersatz Department of Defense agents. It becomes clear that June is being hunted because of her mother, Hazel, a research scientist who died under mysterious circumstances. Might Hazel’s death have had anything to do with her top secret project—developing a new level of artificial intelligence? Peter and June must rely on gumption, wiles, and his nearly superhuman survival skills to fend off their would-be captors and killers. The feisty June plays well off the damaged Ash, who suffers from PTSD, but the action-packed conspiracy plot would have been even more effective if trimmed a bit. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary Agency.

Starred review from November 1, 2016
Ex-Marine and damaged combat vet Peter Ash returns after his harrowing debut (The Drifter, 2016).Peter hikes in a California redwood forest, and a grizzly bear chases him up a tree. He chances upon a series of ropes and scampers--hell, why not--300 feet to the top. There, on a sunlit platform, journalist June Cassidy is hiding from the G-men searching for her on the forest floor. Her mother, Hazel, had been killed earlier by a truck in a hit-and-run. Hazel had been a leading researcher in machine learning and knew she might be murdered for her work on computer systems that could "grow themselves organically." Indeed, an "unnamed party" wants their mitts on the self-teaching algorithm that will soon have "unprecedented access to the electronic infrastructure of our world." Hazel called the algorithm "Tyg3r," and it's become adept at using "neural networks" to constantly improve object recognition. June hires Peter to find out who her pursuers are, "who's behind this." Plenty of violence ensues once they're back on the ground and on the road. Peter has a strong fear of being indoors that stems from his combat days--he calls the "white static" in his head "My war souvenir." But he shows no qualms about killing to defend himself and June. Combat does something for him--"War's dirty little secret," he thinks, is "how alive it made you feel." There are plenty of strong characters: Lewis returns from The Drifter as a talented career criminal who'll drop whatever he's doing to help Peter. Sasha Kolodny, aka "the Yeti," is June's mysterious father, who might have killed Hazel but keeps forgetting she's dead. Readers can expect some good twists on the way to a hair-raising finish.Another fine thriller in what's shaping up to be a hell of a series.

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October 15, 2016

Backpacking in Northern California's Redwood forest, Peter Ashe accidentally meets June Cassidy on a platform hideaway in the tree canopy. He is a marine vet trying to escape his demons; she is an investigative reporter fleeing mysterious armed men in black SUVs. Together they discover that her recently murdered Stanford professor mother had developed a powerful computer algorithm that June's pursuers believe is in her possession, and they will do nearly anything to get it. Events, and a number of dead bodies, lead Peter and June to her long-estranged father's rural compound, where the mentally disturbed computer genius seems to be involved in all this activity. Several of Peter's jarhead friends from Petrie's first book (The Drifter) reappear here, and their Iraq/Afghanistan experience provides a bond that makes them a formidable force. VERDICT Petrie has at least two more books to come in what already is a top-notch series of thrillers marked by a considerable sympathy for veterans. Peter may be a technophobe, but the drones and artificial intelligence devices he encounters are state of the art--and very scary. But then, so is he. Aficionados of Lee Child's Jack Reacher will enjoy getting to know this new action hero. [See Prepub Alert, 7/18/16.]--Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2016
Peter Ash and June Cassidy meet high in a redwood tree in Northern California. He's a claustrophobic ex-marine lieutenant escaping from a grizzly bear; she's a tech-savvy investigative journalist on the run from men who are trying to kidnap or kill her. The men, supposedly from the Defense Department, are after the algorithm developed by June's mother, Hazel, a Stanford professor working on the cutting edge of machine-learning research, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver a week earlier. Hazel had refused to sell her algorithm, called Tyg3r, which was not only gathering information, as it was designed to do, but also growing exponentially and acting as a skeleton key that could penetrate secure systems. So Peter becomes June's protector, with his considerable physical skills and useful contacts, as the pair first flees from predators, then takes action against the power behind it all, while, inevitably, attraction grows between them. This sequel to The Drifter (2016) continues to note the plight of veterans returning from war as it highlights the perils of advances in artificial intelligence. But most of all it's a suspenseful high-tech ride, complete with a steadily mounting body count and a compelling protagonist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)