Sunday, August 4, 2024

Book Review: The Spy Coast

 


Acclaimed author, Tess Gerritsen, has written another suspense thriller that kept me turning pages when I should have been doing other tasks. 

Maggie Bird is a retired CIA agent, living in a small seaside town in Maine. Four of her best friends, also agents who are retired live there, as well. In fact, they were the ones who suggested she make the move to a more quiet life. Maggie bought a small farm and is perfectly content raising chickens, being a good neighbor to an old man and his teen-aged granddaughter, and sharing dinner and drinks with her longtime friends, who call themselves The Martini Club. 

A young CIA agent is an unexpected visitor, asking Maggie to help her locate an agent she'd worked with years earlier, who has disappeared. Maggie wants no part of it and sends the agent away. Only to find her body dumped on the driveway a short time later. Now, Maggie knows her own life is in danger, and that she must face the difficult times from many years earlier. 

She shares her fears with the other four retired agents, who may be slowing down physically but are still mentally alert. They put their heads together in an attempt to sort out Maggie's problem

The town's acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau, is trying to solve the murder but getting little to no information from Maggie or the others in The Martini Club, despite her continued questioning of The Martini Club.

Maggie is forced to revisit her covert career as she hunts for answers. Once again, she must visit Bangkok, Istanbul, London and Malta, facing the ghosts of her past and searching for the truth of what occurred so many years before. 

It's easy to keep track of the story, despite the chapters jumping around with a few of the characters and flashbacks because of the clear, concise writing. Well worth a read. Find it at your favorite bookseller or library. Warning: the reserve list at most libraries will be lengthy. 

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