Will Cochrane, one of MI6’s most notorious agents, is ready for the next phase of his life. He’s trading in being a spy so that he can adopt the twin sons of Roger Koening, a former Navy SEAL, friend, and sometimes colleague, who was recently killed in action.
In the States and ready to settle down for good, Will is one day away from picking up the boys and beginning their new life together–or so he thought. Instead, Will wakes up in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City with blood on his hands and no recollection of how it got there or who it belongs to. A quick trip to the tiny bathroom in his room confirms that the blood is not his own, but rather it came from the dead woman in his bathtub who was double-tapped in the head and left to rot.
Even after shaking away the cobwebs, Will feels confident he never met the woman. He is compelled to run, realizing that the only way to figure out what’s going on is to evade the police officers who are likely in transit to his location.
Eventually, Will finds instructions to look for clues about what’s happening in the Washington Post. The following day, a coded article is waiting for him, explaining that Will is now the target of revenge, caught up in a game aimed to cause him pain and suffering. For what he has no idea. And from who, well, there’s so many bad guys who would love to kill him that he doesn’t even know where to begin.
With Philadelphia’s two finest detectives on the case, and the CIA–who Will has worked with numerous times during his career–also wanting to bring him in, Cochrane must rely on his training and experience as a deep-cover agent to evade the authorities, find out who’s setting him up, and take them out before his life is ruined beyond repair.
Dunn, a former MI6 field agent who spent time undercover and running special operations in real life, almost assuredly understands just how these larger-than-life characters operate off the grid better than anyone else currently writing in the genre, and it shows.
While the super-spy, black ops elements are tantalizing, anyone with children will notice that the twins’ behavior in this book is far from believable (ten-year-olds don’t play with teddy bears, ya know what I mean?). While those parts of the book are distracting and disappointing, if for no other reason than they feel sloppy and unrealistic, the strengths outway the negatives in this otherwise fast-paced novel.
On the run in America with no help or assistance from anyone, Will Cochrane seems right at home with his back up against the wall and the odds stacked against him. This time, though, the stakes are even higher because he has more to lose. That realization fuels him to attempt the impossible, leading to an ending that will leave fans counting down the days until the next book in the series hits bookstores.
Cochrane might be with the MI6, but he’s no James Bond. Matthew Dunn’s hero is closer to Jason Bourne, a lone-wolf who was bred to kill and keep moving. While a little raw, Dunn’s series is actually very underrated. If you enjoy Mark Greaney’s Gray Man novels or Tom Wood’s Victor the Assassin series, you’ll likely appreciate Dunn’s work too. If you love spy novels, this is as real as it gets!
Book Details
Author: Matthew Dunn
Series: Spycatcher (Will Cochrane) #6
Pages: 320 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0062427199
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: October 11, 2016 (Order Now!)