Even

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From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Jason Bourne fans will welcome Grant's thrill-packed debut, which introduces Lt. Cdr. David Trevellyan, of Royal Navy Intelligence. Near the end of a mission in New York City, Trevellyan's chance discovery late one night of a bum in an alley with six neatly arranged bullet holes in his chest makes the secret operative the NYPD's prime suspect in the man's murder. After the FBI takes over the case, Trevellyan learns the victim was an undercover agent for the bureau, the sixth to die in a series of killings. Disavowed by his British bosses, Trevellyan realizes he has to fend for himself in what is clearly some sort of frameup. A villainess with a taste for genital mutilation lends a James Bondian touch, but Grant, bestseller Lee Child's younger brother, never strikes a false note in a plot that could have gone over-the-top in lesser hands. Effortlessly filling in bits of his protagonist's backstory during breathing spaces between action scenes, Grant closes on a nicely dark note. Author tour. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThe thriller genre has a compelling new hero, the creation of Andrew Grant, the younger brother of Lee Child. While on assignment in New York, Royal Navy secret agent David Trevellyan discovers a dead body in an alley. When he is thrown in jail for the man’s murder, he quickly realizes he was set up to be the fall guy. Left hanging by his superiors in the UK, Trevellyan must outwit the NYPD, the FBI, and the group responsible for the killing if he is to clear his name. Of course, the murder turns out to be far more than the simple death of a vagrant. There is some no-holds-barred violence here—a couple scenes require avoiding food before, during, and immediately after reading—but the intensity of the narrative will keep even the timid furiously turning pages. Trevellyan is likely to be compared to his brother’s hero, Jack Reacher, or even to James Bond, and while there is a bit of hyperbole in such claims, there can be no doubt that we have a new guy on the block who requires attention. --Jeff Ayers