In Margaret Truman’s Murder on the Metro, Jon Land’s first thrilling addition to the New York Times bestselling Capital Crimes series, Robert Brixton uncovers a sinister plot threatening millions of American lives! “A roller coaster of a novel.” –David Baldacci, New York Times bestselling author Israel: A drone-based terrorist attack kills dozens on a sun-splashed beach in Caesarea. … on a sun-splashed beach in Caesarea.
Washington: America awakens to the shattering news that Vice President Stephanie Davenport has died of an apparent heart attack.
That same morning, a chance encounter on the Washington Metro results in international private investigator Robert Brixton thwarting an attempted terrorist bombing. Brixton has no reason to suspect that the three incidents have anything in common, until he’s contacted by Kendra Rendine, the Secret Service agent who headed up the vice president’s security detail. Rendine is convinced the vice president was murdered and needs Brixton’s investigative expertise to find out why.
In Israel, meanwhile, legendary anti-terrorist fighter Lia Ganz launches her own crusade against the perpetrators of that attack which nearly claimed the lives of her and granddaughter. Ganz’s trail will ultimately take her to Washington where she joins forces with Brixton to uncover an impossible link between the deadly attack on Caesarea and the attempted Metro bombing, as well as the death of the vice president.
The connection lies in the highest corridors of power in Washington where a deadly plot with unimaginable consequences has been hatched. With the clock ticking toward doomsday, Brixton and Ganz race against time to save millions of American lives who will otherwise become collateral damage to a conspiracy destined to change the United States forever.
“Margaret Truman’s Murder in the Metro is a spectacular international thriller of intrigue and conspiracy that I could . . . not . . . put . . . down.” –Mark Greaney, New York Times bestselling author
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An excellent intrigue/mystery story. Lots of what I’m going to call pieces going on. I’m using the term “pieces” here because plots would sound as if this were a confusing read. And…it’s not. I’m not sure how an author can put all of these singularly intriguing pieces together in a clear yet interwoven way. Everything touched everything in one way or another. No one event could have been triggered without the other in some way. The character in the book brings up a conundrum that I myself have pondered on many times. Fate. Can there really be a “being in the right place at the right time”.
As I have “blathered” on here you can probably already tell I enjoyed this book. I have read several Margaret Truman books and will admit I found some to be slow beginners. Not this time. The amount of secrecy and action don’t seem one bit futuristic. The author has done the research and there is very little in this thriller that can’t be pictured as coming to real life. I have to but hope that we only read about such occurrences in fiction books and never know of them in real life.
I’m sure you are aware this is Book 31 of Capital Crimes. While Margaret Truman did write a few of the books in this series, most of the series was written by a famous ghostwriter named Donald Baines. Even more important now that we have lost both Mrs. Truman and Donald Baines is the current “ghostwriter” or coauthor of this book, Jon Land. You’ll see in this book that Jon Land has created the same page turner type mystery/thriller writing as you have read before. Let me also point out that Jon Land is the author of his own book. All which have good reviews.
This is just all fascinating and it made me want to read all of everyone’s books! There are so many I’ll have piles of them. O Happy Day.
“Murder on the Metro” is part of the “Capital Crimes Series” originally written by Margaret Truman. Jon Land has taken over the series, and successfully continued the politically-based thriller series with this latest installment. The plot is compelling, grounded in truth, centered in headline grabbing international politics, but extending just beyond the edge of reality, at least for now.
Land gives readers an inside look at Washington D. C., the people who live there, work there, and die there. The first-ever female vice president (Watch out Kamala) dies of a heart attack, but perhaps is it murder disguised as something else. Mackensie Smith’s law firm is downsizing. Robert Brixton, a private investigator in the greater DC area, prevents an unspeakable tragedy by a thwarting suicide bomber on the Metro. Detective Rogers is an enigma. Who is he? Who should he be? On the other side of the world, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, retired Mossad agent Lia Ganz avoids the tragedy of a drone attack on the beach. Elaborate sensory descriptions set the stage for the disaster and danger that is to come. The usual technology, including hidden cameras and drones bring all these characters together along with unlikely weapons such as a roller coaster and an actual ceiling.
“Murder on the Metro” is a non-stop thrill ride that places readers inside the treachery and action. Events that are not supposed to happen just do. I received a review copy of “Murder on the Metro” from Jon Land and Forge Books. Land has continued the magnificent tradition of “Capital Crimes,” and with so much “material” available to draw on in D.C., I am sure there will be many more compelling episodes to come.
I have been reading Jon Land’s books for decades, but have never read any of Margaret Truman’s Capital Crime series, until now. This was different from the Murder She Wrote and Caitlin Strong novels Jon writes and I loved it.
We start out with Lia and her granddaughter enjoying the beach…until the drones come and the bullets begin flying. It was a miracle they were still alive. Lia had retired from her job in the Elite Special Ops of the Israeli Army after suffering wounds that kept her at her desk. She feels she has no choice but to get back in the game.
Thousands of miles away, in Washington D C, Brixton is on the Washington Metro when his senses go on high alert. He spots a woman wearing a hijab. She brings to mind the woman responsible for his daughter’s death. The flash told him he was too late to stop her, but his actions saved many lives.
The VP has heart issues and I love the frightening stance Jon Land took with the issue. I love that his mind is able to conceive of such realistic scenarios.
Lia and Brixton carefully and quietly try to discover what is really going on and the danger mounts. If they weren’t so highly thought of and had a track record to prove it, some might have thought they were paranoid. What’s the saying…You’re not paranoid if they are out to get you. Others are drawn in and it becomes too big to keep secret.
Jon Land quickly captures my attention and it never lets up. I love reading about conspiracies. When Jon has the characters talking about the NSA having access to all the cameras, like the ones at gas stations, traffic lights, tolls, it made me think of the TV show, Person of Interest. Like all things, it can be used for good or evil.
What do a nun, an Israeli Mossad agent, and an international American Private Investigator have in common? This is power gone wild and it will take all of them to stop it.
WHOA! Murder on the Metro goes so far over the line, it frightens me. Is it possible? I believe most anything is possible in the electronic age we live it.
Talk about political machinations, Murder on the Metro seems all too real. From current events, we can see some leaders will go to any extreme to accomplish their goals. The steps they will go to to keep and have the ultimate power is an ultimate betrayal.
Jon Land wrapped up the story in spectacular fashion, leaving me hopeful for our future. I do think there are more good than bad people, though at times it’s hard to keep that in mind, and his writing is so realistic, I believe it could really happen.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Murder On The Metro by Jon Land.
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I have only read a few of the novels in the past, but they’ve all been excellent. This installment into the series was no exception! It was fast paced, highly addictive and definitely one I will be recommending!
When I read a thriller novel, I want all the intense feelings, and characters that chiseled with depth. This one had both. I instantly felt a part of the chase with Brixton & Rendine. Each twist and turn they went through to solve the happenings centered around the Capital, I felt like so was right beside them. Each clue, each crime, each ending,brought me a little closer to the edge of my seat.
If you like your political thrillers filled with amazing characters, white knuckle moments and endings that will leave you ready for more, then this is definitely a novel you don’t want to miss. The writing style is flawless, and the plot line is a perfect roller coaster ride. Definitely worthy of 4 stars and recommended to all!
*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Author/Publisher and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*
What could an amusement park maintenance man in Israel’s Judean Hills, an 85-year-old nun, the US Vice President, and a young Lebanese student have in common?
This powerful, fast-paced thriller is Jon Land’s first addition to the long-time series, and what a fabulous, all-absorbing novel it is! This is the first I’ve read in the series; I picked it up as a relatively new fan of the author and was absolutely captivated from the start. It can be read as a standalone as sufficient backstory is included on characters and situations.
Vice President Stephanie Davenport recently had stents put into three arteries. Kendra, head of her Secret Service detail, is everything I would expect from a high-profile guardian. She has been concerned for Stephanie since before the procedure, as something has been bothering the vice president since her last briefing with the President. Then one night Stephanie had a heart attack and nothing they did saved her.
Robert Brixton once was part of a group that provided protective services to people at the State Department. Five years earlier, his daughter was killed by a suicide bomber; he has never gotten over being unable to get her out of the bomber’s path before detonation. On his way into his current office where he does private investigative work for his best friend’s law firm, he sees another woman whose expression reminds him of the suicide bomber of years ago. He tries to stop her before she reaches for the cord, she got spooked and left the Metro train car, where the vest was detonated.
Lia, known as the Lioness of Judah before an injury put her into retirement, had been a colonel in the Israeli Defense Force. Since then, she spends most of her time being a grandmother and missing the life she used to have. That is about to change, however, when shots from several terrorist drones on the beach in Caesarea down dozens of students. She and her little granddaughter were in the water and could only watch; thankfully, the drones had not been aimed in the water where they were.
Lia chose to come off retirement to help with the threat to her country. What she learns, and what Robert subsequently learns, from their contacts and travels, sends them racing through DC, Baltimore, New York City, even Tennessee, trying to discover and prevent the plans of those who have plotted to steal the country for their own purposes. People who are caught looking too closely or asking questions are dying or disappearing. Whether or not Robert, Lia, and the person they break out of federal prison can stop the disaster before it occurs is anyone’s guess.
This is an excellent thriller! I wasn’t prepared for the intensity! I was quickly invested in the protagonists and the plot. Finding out how our country could be destroyed by the plans of one person who swayed people in the highest places of government while keeping it from the media was frightening. While the reader is let in slowly on who was involved, what the reader does not know is where the worst would occur, when, and what it would be. The ending is spectacular and very satisfying. I highly recommend this to fans of the series, the author, and breath-stealing thrillers with non-stop action.
From a thankful heart: I received a complimentary copy of this novel, and this is my honest review.
Great Start — Questionable Ending At Least For Me
Thriller/International/Conspiratorial/Action
The novel opens with a retired Mossad grandmother enjoying the waters of Caesarea, Israel, with her granddaughter. The child was discovering her grandmother’s gunshot injuries when two drones buzz the beach and start shooting and killing everyone in sight. Next, the head of the Vice-President security detail has just left the VP in her bedroom for the night. The VP recently had heart surgery and is on a heart monitor. The VP flat lines and is dead before the protection team can enter her bedroom. Lastly, an ex-cop, who previously has performed some security work for the State Department, is riding the Metro to work and notices a woman trying to be inconspicuous but reminding him of the woman five years earlier who was a suicide-bomber had killed his young daughter right before his eyes. She starts toward the end of the car and tries to go between the doors into the next car. She disappears between the train and her vest explodes. From here the novel proceeds at full speed.
The main storyline is fast paced and action packed. In most conspiratorial-thriller novels, there are twists, turns, and dead ends in trying to identify the perpetrator. In this novel, each bit of progress starts to indicate that a terrible ominous threat is unfolding. I felt that the storyline was sending tendrils out that entangled my attention and would not let it go. This quality in a novel is my major requirement for a high star rating.
As I have seen in these action thrillers, the B-storyline is sprinkled along the way as the action timeline. It is there and provides enough to provide some depth of understanding of the main storyline. A more robust B-storyline would only slow down an action thriller like this.
For characteristics that some fine objectionable, there are not any intimate scenes. As you would expect an action thriller, there is quite a bit of violence, such as, fights, killings, and terrorist attacks. Most all of it is described as it happen and in the first person, so it is much more edgy. Use of vulgar language is quite low level.
There was an aspect of this novel that I did like very much. There is a character in the novel that you do not know who he really is. Is he on the hero’s side or is he playing the hero? This unknown status enhanced the thriller side of this novel for me.
As I was approaching the last quarter of the novel, it was running like a bullet train. Then, for me, it derailed. There were glaring, to me, errors in technology, physics, and history. I’m being quite vague because I am a quandary on how handle this in my review. After writing a review on a recent novel, I looked at the 1 star reviews. The heroine of the novel was a diver, and a diver ripped this novel for how unrealistic was the novel’s heroine. I first wanted to give a low star rating, but I thought that I recently justified a high star rating against this type of criticism by stating that I was entertained and enjoyed reading this novel. I read to be entertained. I do not know of any entertainment movie or TV show that does not take short cuts to keep the storyline flowing and come to a satisfactory conclusion.
Overall, my star rating plummeted from a four to five to two star rating when the storyline derailed. After finishing reading, I developed my thoughts expressed in the previous paragraph. For me, I rated the book at three, but removing my objections with the novel, I rate this novel with four stars. Just remember that there are literary land mines that may spoil your enjoyment. It is possible that you will not trip across one of these. Let the reader be forewarned. I will say that I will not be reading any more novels from this series.
I have received a free e-book version of this novel through NetGalley from Macmillan-Tor/Forge Books with an expectation for an honest, unbiased review. I wish to thank Macmillan-Tor/Forge Books for the opportunity to read and review this novel early.
international-crime-and-mystery, terrorism, investigation, private-investigators, feds, friendship, PTSD, espionage
Gather the threads of several plots and braid them into a coherent whole complete with several in depth studies of the main protagonists and you have an idea of what this riveting book is like. Unputdownable. A classic Capital Crimes mystery with lots of domestic and international intrigue updated to the plots of terrorism.
It’s been too long since I’ve read any of the Capital Crimes but now I have to go putter around in some of the unread!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Forge Books via NetGalley. Thank you!