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gbdill's review against another edition
5.0
Non-stop page-turner. Excellent story. Non-stop action. Unpredictable. All the makings of a great thriller. Read it in just a few days. Kind of had a Jason Bourne feeling to it as CIA agent Tommy Carmellini is mistakenly singled out by other agents and has a hit on his head. An element of mystery as Carmellini flees not knowing for certain who he can trust. Has several twists at the end of the story. I think I'm going to enjoy the Carmellini series and more by this author.
marbles66's review against another edition
4.0
Liars and Thieves is Stephen Coonts as you've never seen him before-a story as chilling as it is unforgettable. Tommy Carmellini, a CIA operative who is unafraid to walk both sides of the law to attain his objective, uncovers a dark conspiracy that leads to the highest levels of the American government-and to a ruthless manipulator who will stop at nothing to keep a decades-old secret.
Liars and Thieves opens as Carmellini is sent to post guard duty at a farmhouse in West Virginia's remote Allegheny Mountains, where top government operatives are debriefing a star defector: the ultimate KGB insider, a man with records on every operation and every dirty trick the shadowy intelligence agency has ever run, from Lenin to Putin.
Carmellini arrives to find the guards shot dead and a ruthless team of commandos--American commandos--killing everyone in sight, then setting the house on fire. He escapes in a hail of bullets with what seems to be the sole survivor, a stunningly attractive translator who then steals his car, abandoning him, after a deadly mountain car chase.
But one other person survived the massacre: The man whose fractured memory holds the KGB's most embarrassing secrets, including something for which someone will kill to keep it quiet. Carmellini teams up with his mentor, Admiral Jake Grafton, and together they track down the amnesiac defector. From there, the hunt is on as they become the target of a lethal squad of killers who can only be taking direction from someone very close to the president.
From a bloody ambush at a posh Virginia estate, to assassinations on the decaying streets of inner city Washington, to a makeshift safe house at Grafton's Delaware summer home, no place is outside the ruthless conspiracy's reach.
Carmellini and Grafton must learn to tell friend from foe as they fight their way through a poisonous wilderness of intrigue, all the way to a presidential convention in New York City-and to the surprising identity of someone standing on the verge of absolute power who has jeopardized the safety of the entire nation to prevent a dark secret from ever seeing the light of day.
This was a different book to read but enjoyed it all the same.
Liars and Thieves opens as Carmellini is sent to post guard duty at a farmhouse in West Virginia's remote Allegheny Mountains, where top government operatives are debriefing a star defector: the ultimate KGB insider, a man with records on every operation and every dirty trick the shadowy intelligence agency has ever run, from Lenin to Putin.
Carmellini arrives to find the guards shot dead and a ruthless team of commandos--American commandos--killing everyone in sight, then setting the house on fire. He escapes in a hail of bullets with what seems to be the sole survivor, a stunningly attractive translator who then steals his car, abandoning him, after a deadly mountain car chase.
But one other person survived the massacre: The man whose fractured memory holds the KGB's most embarrassing secrets, including something for which someone will kill to keep it quiet. Carmellini teams up with his mentor, Admiral Jake Grafton, and together they track down the amnesiac defector. From there, the hunt is on as they become the target of a lethal squad of killers who can only be taking direction from someone very close to the president.
From a bloody ambush at a posh Virginia estate, to assassinations on the decaying streets of inner city Washington, to a makeshift safe house at Grafton's Delaware summer home, no place is outside the ruthless conspiracy's reach.
Carmellini and Grafton must learn to tell friend from foe as they fight their way through a poisonous wilderness of intrigue, all the way to a presidential convention in New York City-and to the surprising identity of someone standing on the verge of absolute power who has jeopardized the safety of the entire nation to prevent a dark secret from ever seeing the light of day.
This was a different book to read but enjoyed it all the same.
jfranco77's review against another edition
4.0
I feel like I may have read this book before. Tommy Carmellini was a minor character in one of the Jake Grafton books. Now he has his own series. By day, he does odd jobs for the CIA, utilizing his burglary skills for God and Country. He also has a side gig where he works as a locksmith. By night, he hits on anything that moves and has way more success than he probably should. He's crude, but funny; a good guy with some bad habits.
Carmellini gets assigned to work security at a safe house in rural West Virginia, but when he gets there, he walks into a massacre. He escapes, but he's sure he'll get the blame, so he spends most of the book trying to figure out what happened and how he can clear his name. It turns out that it's a Big Conspiracy, so Tommy has to call in Jake Grafton for help. Hey, it's the first book in the spin-off, so we need the main character to ease Tommy in.
Overall, it works. The ultimate conspiracy was a little dull, but getting there was plenty of fun.
Carmellini gets assigned to work security at a safe house in rural West Virginia, but when he gets there, he walks into a massacre. He escapes, but he's sure he'll get the blame, so he spends most of the book trying to figure out what happened and how he can clear his name. It turns out that it's a Big Conspiracy, so Tommy has to call in Jake Grafton for help. Hey, it's the first book in the spin-off, so we need the main character to ease Tommy in.
Overall, it works. The ultimate conspiracy was a little dull, but getting there was plenty of fun.
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