Publisher's Weekly Review
The pseudonymous Boyd's second thriller featuring Steve Vail, a Chicago bricklayer and former FBI agent, suffers from the same defects as its predecessor, The Bricklayer-a flat central character, a numbing abundance of dialogue, and too many improbable investigative epiphanies. Once again, Vail teams with beautiful FBI assistant director Kate Bannon in Washington, D.C., this time to investigate claims made by an informant known only as Calculus. An intelligence officer at the Russian embassy, Calculus says he know the identity of several Americans who are supplying Moscow with secret U.S. military information; he will dribble out the names-as long as the FBI coughs up $250,000 per spy. Vail, meanwhile, has other ideas about how to find the treasonous U.S. citizens and squeeze Calculus for more information. In the course of a long and convoluted plot, Boyd, a former FBI agent, offers little about the inner workings of the agency or its investigative techniques. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Those pesky Russian spies are at it again. So is Steve Vail (The Bricklayer, 2010).Even though his deep anti-authoritarian streak made him give up on the FBI long ago, Stevehasn't given up on deputy assistant director Kate Bannon. Eager first to squire her to a diplomatic party she never makes it to and then to restore her reputation after what looks like her attempted suicide, he allows himself to get drawn back into the Bureau one last time (yeah, right) in the case of a Russian agent who's code-named himself Calculus. The agent has a list of American informants who've been selling information to the NVR, formerly the KGB, and in the spirit of capitalist enterprise, he wants to sell the list to the FBI, one name at a time. Agreeing to follow the clues Calculus has left to the entry-level mole, Steve quickly finds that Calculus really likes to playthe trail that leads from each informant to the next seems best suited to game-show veterans and Sudoku mastersand that someone (Calculus? the NVR? a player to be named later?) has a penchant for killing each of the informants just in time for the arrival of Steve and his old Bureau friend Luke Bursaw, who's stealing precious moments from the riddle of whether a serial killer of prostitutes has graduated to murdering a vanished FBI intelligence analyst. At length, the mind-boggling treasure hunt lands Kate in jail for treason, doomed to rot there forever unless Steve and company can somehow break her out, identify the real Agent X from among suspects in the Pentagon, the Lithuanian Chess Society and diverse defense contractors, and go after him with condign deadly force. Don't guess what happens, because there's no way you'll be wrong.A three-ring carnival of counter-espionage, game-playing and summary justice whose many beautifully choreographed action sequences will make you forget how obvious its premise is, and how absurd its details.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Steve Vail, once an ace FBI agent, now a bricklayer (The Bricklayer, 2009), arrives in Washington to take Kate Bannon, the bureau's assistant director, to an embassy soiree. But his romantic mission is sidelined by an urgent summons from the bureau: a Russian embassy staffer, code-named Calculus, is offering to name Americans feeding sensitive information to Russian intelligence. But no sooner than the bureau accepts the Russian's terms, he is spirited off to Moscow, presumably to be tortured into admitting what he has done. Steve and Kate must identify the moles and reel them in before the Russians snuff them. But before that can happen, Vail must solve the many puzzles that Calculus uses to conceal information. Thriller fans get an endlessly twisting plot strewn with chases, gun battles, and explosions. Calculus' puzzles are engaging, and the bureau's procedural and bureaucratic thickets sound real. Cynics will enjoy the portrayal of all FBI administrators as butt-covering careerists, but Vail, equal parts Sherlock Holmes and Dirty Harry, strains credulity. Not as strong as The Bricklayer, but fans won't want to give up on the series yet.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
A Soviet spy is willing to turn over a number of double agents leaking classified U.S. information until Moscow calls him home. Convinced the Russians know about their turncoat, the FBI has limited time to follow the informant's clues to find traitors high within the ranks of American agencies. Former FBI agent Boyd (The Bricklayer) returns with FBI assistant director Kate Bannon and ex-agent Steve Vail in this resurrection of Cold War spy craft. Vail's incredible ease in solving a decade-old kidnapping unrelated to the case, forced banter between characters, and stilted transitions leave this thriller with much to be desired. VERDICT A poorly written, clumsy romance subplot will distract readers from the action, and fans of the genre won't be impressed by crime-solving through sudden hunches and lucky run-ins with characters who handily know more than they should. Not recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/10.]-Colleen S. Harris, Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga Lib. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.