Steve Martini, Trader of Secrets

Trader of Secrets

Steve Martini

Morrow, May 31 2011, $26.99

ISBN: 9780061930232

Assassin Muerte "the Mexicutioner" Liquida seeks vengeance against San Diego, California lawyer Paul Madriani and his friends for interfering with his deadly business (see Guardian of Lies and The Rule of Nine). He has already left Paul's investigative friend Herman Diggs critically wounded and mounts a violent attack against Paul though his daughter Sarah.

Madriani's partner Harry Hinds and his girlfriend Joselyn Cole persuade him they need to go after the killer before he murders them. They follow his lethal path to Thailand and from there to Paris. However, they soon find themselves in the middle of stolen NASA technology that in the wrong hands uses nature to release destructive energy exponentially stronger than a nuclear bomb.

Not sure how the law firm stays afloat, as the Mexicutioner saga is predominantly an international thriller that fans who have read at least the previous two books will enjoy. Although over the top of Doi Inthanon and the Eifel Tower, readers who ignore plausibility (he previously dealt with a nuke in this arc) will appreciate Madriani and company globetrotting to catch their adversary and prevent the deployment of another weapon of mass destruction.

Harriet Klausner