Customer Reviews

The Echelon Vendetta

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I got to read an advance reading copy of this book, and found myself buying two copies for friends of mine. At first I thought "great, here's another CIA-thriller from some unknown author"...only to find myself immersed in the novel within only pages, and suddenly thinking "where did this author come from?"

Many surprises, a few violent deaths, and wonderful scenic settings. It's rare that all the elements come together as well as they do in this novel thriller.

But one warning -- the emphasis is on VIOLENT in the "violent deaths" sentence above. We're talking SIlence of the Lambs violent. Still, it's entertaining and fast paced, and truly surprising! I can imagine the folks in those studio offices in Hollywood jumping over each other to buy the movie rights.

Michah Dalton, a "cleaner" for the Company is called to Cortona, a small Italian town where his friend Porter Naumann has met a horrific end. Before the day is over Dalton is fighting for his own life with Croatian thugs and then a bright green spider.

Determined to avenge Naumann's death Dalton traverses the globe from a horrendous crime-scene in London to Langley to the badlands of Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado. At every turn he he encounters danger and loss of life. Yet he perseveres, sometimes by pure luck and sometimes by cunning and sometimes by military savvy.

George Smiley, LeCarre's quintessential Cold War spy confronted betrayal behind operation. Here it is duty that drives Dalton onward. But Dalton is also bright, literate and angst-riddled. If there is some betrayal lurking, it is not for me to say. But this book never lets go, never compromises, and never can be put down.

A new master spy designed for the Long War has emerged. May we see him again!

Quite often discovering a new and intriguing protagonist is akin to making another good friend, someone you know you'll enjoy, a person you want to spend time with. Such was my feeling when first coming upon Micah Dalton in The Echelon Vendetta. He's unique, having formulated his own morality system. He's also very much aware of the best and the worst in people. Cynical, romantic, often approachable, courageous, determined all describe Dalton.

He works for the CIA as a "cleaner" - precisely what the name implies. It's up to him to clean up messes made by others or step in when undercover operations go dramatically awry. His best friend and mentor is or better said was Porter Naumann. It appears to have been suicide when Naumann's body is found in a chapel courtyard in the beautiful hillside town of Cortona, Italy.

However, Dalton isn't buying any of that suicide nonsense and decides to do a little investigating on his own beginning in Venice where Naumann lived. (Don't you love this author's locations?) The deaths of Naumann's family in London corroborate what Dalton was beginning to suspect - there's a mad man on the loose, a killer hunting those with ties to the CIA and someone has to stop him.

Known primarily for his outstanding work in stage productions, Firdous Bamji delivers a suspenseful reading of this too-close-for-comfort tale. His narrative is well paced, his diction scrupulous, and his voice masterful.

- Gail Cooke

"Vendetta: Italian, from Latin vindicta, revenge; see vindictive."

On a late August night in an Idaho trailer camp, a man dies a horrible death. It was a murder so gruesome, it could only be revenge. Before the killer finished off his victim, he wanted to know just one thing: Who was the man in the long blue coat? His victim could not --- or would not --- tell him.

A few weeks later, another man is found dead, this one on the streets of a Tuscan hill town. Again, the murder is too horrific to be a mere mugging gone wrong. Witnesses report hearing voices from his room but none claim to have seen anything.

Major Brancati of the Italian carabinieri summons Micah Dalton, who purportedly knew the dead man, to identify the body. Dalton is sad to see his old friend so mutilated, obviously the result of a slow and painful death. He answers the major's questions, but volunteers nothing. Brancati has a feeling that Dalton is not being totally forthright with him. Dalton's job description is "cleaner," and his employer is known as Burke and Single, a bank, but even Brancati doesn't buy that. Dalton's skills and acuity are simply too sharp --- and the manner of death of his colleague too methodical and personal --- for Dalton to be anything but CIA.

Keeping his true employment a secret becomes the least of Dalton's worries when more corpses start to pile up. The connection? They all were associated with a project called Echelon, a seemingly harmless, even mundane, operation. Its purpose was vague, but no red flags come up when Dalton does some digging. So who would want to kill the members of such an innocuous group?

Several likely suspects pop up, one especially interesting fellow who Dalton desperately wants to follow up on. Unfortunately, his superior, Jack Stallworth, reins him in and sends him to interview another ex-Echelon operative, a man named Willard Fremont. Dalton can't understand why the sudden interest in Fremont since Fremont seems to have just had a really bad day and gone postal with a postal worker. Even considering that he was attached to Echelon, the idea of checking Fremont out smacks of a ploy to derail Dalton's investigation. Is Stallworth trying to lead him away from the truth, or is he protecting one of his best operatives from certain self-destruction?

In fairness to Stallworth, Dalton has been drinking pretty heavily and saying some pretty weird things, weird enough to question his fitness for duty. He has been alternating between normal function and hallucinations, yet he denies any psychotic break from reality --- most likely trying to convince himself as much as anyone. But, since his choices are to have a little chat with Fremont or nothing, Dalton chooses the former. And wisely so, for some of what Fremont has to say puts Dalton back on track.

Fraught with spine-tingling chases, scary near misses and several nasty deaths, THE ECHELON VENDETTA will keep you turning pages to the surprising end.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

OK, it's funny that someone else wrote that he did not feel like the action got going until the end because that's exactly when I lost interest. I listened to this in my car -- narrator did a GREAT job, btw -- but the last 1.5 CDs (out of 13 total) I thought were very predictable action sequences and a little boring.

Like other reviewers I wanted more of some of the minor characters to return later in the book. Also, speaking of vendettas, did the Eastern Europeans just forget about Micah?? So they could track him to an apartment building in Venice he visited once but after he leaves the immediate area poof, they've lost their ability to track him?! It's a *crime family* for heaven's sake.

Loved Porter's ghost, and I thought Cora was a realy strong character. I thought the hallucigen-as-a-weapon was good but CSI had the recorded-sounds-on-wet-clay-thing in the "Committed" episode in 2005 and I thought it was kind of weak then too.

But overall I thought the book was really great and well-written. I found Micah to be sympathetic and complex, with his life as messy as any real person.

The last three chapters provided me the type of story I was looking for. The story before that had some promise, but did not always deliver. I found the concept of a CIA 'cleaner' to be interesting, but the story did not add significant depth to job. Dalton could have just as easily been a regular agent.

Dalton is a likeable enough hero, but isn't especially memorable. The villain remains on the periphery, and is never fully developed. He's obviously twisted, but does not get nearly enough attention. Even his motive, while certainly a believable one on the surface, seems forced due to his overall character. The author even makes an attempt to justify the motive at one point, almost as if he knew the reader would find it a stretch.

At times, I liked the interaction between Dalton and Naumann, but the unique relationship was overused in places. I found Willard to be the most memorable character. Stallworth and Vasari were underutilized.

There were some plot lines left open that would have seemed better closed. I know the next book in the series continues the story and will hopefully begin to pull things together. Lest you think all my negativity doesn't warrant three stars, I'll justify by saying it's an average book with an outstanding ending, which satisfies a couple of key storylines.

No spoilers.

If you are to take to heart the reviews on Amazon, you would think that this is one of the best action/thriller books out there. It is not. While I did like many parts of the plot, the novel is so-so on an aggregate level and at some points it putters along slow enough to make one sleepy, yet just fast enough to not send you entirely to sleep.

On the front jacket of the hardcover edition, the book is described as follows: "Vivid characters and spellbinding, heart-pounding, hallucinogetic plotting...". I'll agree with the vivid characters and the hallucinogetic plotting (if you read it, you understand how appropriate 'hallucionogetic' is) but only a handful of scenes can be describes and spellbinding and/or hear-pounding.

In addition to that puttering around of the plot, I also found the book to be kind of confusing in terms of the cast of characters because it was my experience that I forgot about who people were and what they did when they were introduced early on, only to find out that they played an important role that I would find out later in the story. Now, I'm not an idiot and I read quite a lot so it's not that I'm retarded, it's just that I don't think the author did a good enough job of making the background/supporting characters both memorable enough for me to not have to search my brain for what they did in the past, yet ambiguous enough for me to not know right off the bat that they were involved.

Bottom line for this story is that if you breeze through a lot of books in a short period of time then this is probably worthy your time, but if you are selective of your books and dedicate an extensive period of time to each one, then I recommend you not invest in this one.

Though hefty, do not be discouraged by the size of this one. Wordy, but once the hook is set you won't put this down. Strong descriptive language takes us to various locales and shows some familarity with the world's different places. Tough action, tho some of it occurs off stage. A sharp eye, educated commentary and a wicked wit, help the reader along. Very enjoyable.

This is one of those characters and authors that will blow your mind. After reading it, it will be difficult for anything else to measure up. Is it violent? Yes. Is there action? Sure. Bad language? uh-huh. There is also humor and Micah is supremely sarcastic. If this stuff bothers you, don't read it...but if you're like me and enjoy action and a great lead character...you'll want to be all over this. The writing is superb too. On to the next...

This fast-paced, action-filled novel introduces a new author and a new character to the covert-action library. Micah Dalton finds himself tracking down a CIA operative who apparently has gone bonkers and is killing off his former colleagues. This all involves some mind-altering substances and very gruesome murders. In fact Micah Dalton and his maniacal prey wreak enough slaughter for two or three such novels. As a dramatic device, it gets a bit excessive. The characters are well-developed, and the writing is good enough to make David Stone an author to keep your eye on.