BLURB
The only thing worth killing for is family.
Everyone said she had her father’s eyes. A killer’s eyes. Nadia knew that on the bitterly cold streets of Moscow, she could never escape her past – but in just a few days, she would finally be free.
Bound to work for Kadinsky for five years, she has one last mission to complete. Yet when she is instructed to capture The Rose, a military weapon shrouded in secrecy, Nadia finds herself trapped in a deadly game of global espionage.
And the only man she can trust is the one sent to spy on her…
Book One of Nadia Laksheva spy thriller series
MY REVIEW
She’d been fourteen when two men in combat fatigues and balaclavas burst into the kitchen where she and her father were enjoying breakfast. She could have darted for it, threatened them, helped him. But she hesitated. The moment slipped past. They threw a black hood over his head, cuffed him, and dragged him away to be interrogated, tortured, executed and buried in the woods. A single thought haunted her ever since. Had he known they would come?
Nadia promised 5 years of her life and 10 ops to the Russian mob for her and her sister to walk away, but something has gone wrong with her final op. She is left alone with a valuable device called the Rose, that has resulted in several dead colleagues. She has a few days to retrieve the Rose from the bottom of the ocean at a depth of 66 metres which is a dangerous dive that she needs help with. Who can she trust? Can she return the device to her boss before she and her sister are killed?
Jake is a former employee of MI6 due to a mission gone bad, and they want him back to find a girl and recover the Rose. As an experienced diver, Jake agrees to this one last mission in exchange for the service resolving a personal matter, but he isn’t prepared for Nadia. A strong, determined, and vulnerable young woman who has a lot to lose if she cannot complete her mission. How can he do this one last job without putting Nadia’s life in danger?
In book one of the Nadia Laksheva spy thriller series, Kirwan takes the reader to Russia, London and exotic places following Nadia Laksheva, Russian spy, who is an exceptional protaganist in the story. The reader roots for Nadia because she sacrifices her life to save her sister and when the going gets tough, she takes it all in stride. Jake’s character is a good complement to Nadia because he is determined to help her no matter what the cost.
This is a great first novel to the series. It is fast-paced and the scuba diving scenes are very lifelike. The idea that you don’t know who to trust in the story is a gripping plot line. I’m looking forward to reading the next in the series. If you like spy thrillers with strong female protaganists, great escape sequences and a bit of scuba diving, you will enjoy this novel.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.F. Kirwan is the author of the Nadia Laksheva thriller series for HarperCollins. Having worked in accident investigation and prevention in nuclear, offshore oil and gas and aviation sectors, he uses his experience of how accidents initially build slowly, then race towards a climax, to plot his novels. An instructor in both scuba diving and martial arts, he travels extensively all over the world, and loves to set his novels in exotic locations. He is also an insomniac who writes in the dead of night. His favourite authors include Lee Child, David Baldacci and Andy McNab.
