Ms. Everly really seems to be at her best when she is looking through the eyes of her protagonist, and while the author makes several nods to the works of Ian Fleming, her creation, Eliana Havelocke, is definitely her own woman. She has all the prowess of Bond, but with more humor and an ironic sense of self-awareness that helps ground the more sensational aspects of the plot. Some of the science and technology might be questionable, but the action is well-described and realistic, and the last time I checked I don’t read thrillers for procedural accuracy and text-book dryness.
The characters are solid if unspectacular, except for Eliana, and she’s the one the matters. That her mission has a personal reason, which is hinted but not spelled-out, gives her story a bit more urgency than many spy thrillers, and Ms. Everly gives us just enough to sate us, but leaves enough mystery to make us want to come back. I got a particular kick out of Ms. Everly’s take on Treadik’s end-game, which was a real nod to the classic British spy genre, and her handling of her heroine’s sexuality, which was a reversal of the same. Ms. Everly even gives us an evil organization with a catchy names, and if this wasn’t an ARC I would quote her homage to a classic line from the Bond canon. All in all Havelock is a fast-moving clever thriller that left me me waiting for the next installment. |
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July 2020
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