Out of the Shadows (Akira and Deane Thriller Series #1)
Author: Tim Jopling
4 out of 5 stars
In Russia, a man known only as Akira has a plan to bring down the corrupt Western governments. Motivated by his wife’s death, his plans slowly start to come to fruition in Russia. After MI6 foils a plot to attack a royal family member in Oman, Thomas Deane and his partner Sam Olsen, along with French Agent Patrice Marraud, soon realize that someone with bigger plans is pulling the strings.
Overall, I liked the characters. Deane and Sam have an interesting partnership. Deane’s known Sam since he was a teenager because he was partnered with his father. Sam’s father died when he was fifteen, so when he joined MI6, Deane took on a fatherly role and sees Sam as a son. However, this sometimes leads to friction because he wants to keep Sam safe.
Akira is a very interesting character. After having a mental breakdown following his wife’s death, he now has memory issues and remembers little about his past. He remembers knowing Deane and Marraud and blames the Western governments for his wife’s death, so I assume he used to be an agent. There’s also an interesting contrast between him and Marraud. Marraud also lost his wife and uses her memory to motivate him because she was killed by his enemies. Marraud only blames them while Akira blames the government. We also later have a character appear who does prove Akira right about the government corruption. The character is willing to do whatever he has to so he can push his own agenda with MI6.
I didn’t care for some of the writing and word choices, but the pace and flow were great. There were multiple point-of-view changes, but they were done in a way that it was like shifting between scenes in a movie. My main problem with the writing was the overuse of character descriptors. I mean things like, “the loyal guard,” which isn’t necessary because he’s a guard, I assume he’s loyal. There’s also repeated use of, “the government agent”, where just agent could be used.
Another one was calling an agent a legend, and there were multiple, which tuns out is a pet peeve I didn’t know I had. Every time an agent was called legendary or a living legend, all I could picture, like a scene in a movie, was an action hero walking past some teenage boys and one saying, “Man, he’s such a legend.”
Overall, this is a good book. The issues I had with it were more personal taste, so I’m rating it 4 out of 5 stars. Honestly, the characters really made the book for me. They were well written and interesting, especially Akira. If you’re a fan of spy novels, you’ll like this book.
Price through Amazon Kindle: $0
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0151XPG4U
(I do not benefit from the use of this link.)