Talia Inger is a rookie CIA case officer assigned not to the Moscow desk as she had hoped but to the forgotten backwaters of Eastern Europe–a department only known as “Other.” When she is tasked with helping a young, charming Moldovan executive secure his designs for a revolutionary defense technology, she figures she’ll be back in DC within a few days. But that’s before she knows where the … designs are stored–and who’s after them. With her shady civilian partner, Adam Tyler, Talia takes a deep dive into a world where only criminal minds and unlikely strategies will keep the Gryphon, a high-altitude data vault, hovering in the mesosphere.
Even Tyler is more than he seems, and Talia begins to wonder: Is he helping her? Or using her access to CIA resources to pull off an epic heist for his own dark purposes?
In this Ocean’s Eleven-meets-Mission Impossible thriller, former tactical deception officer and stealth pilot James R. Hannibal offers you a nonstop thrill ride through the most daring heist ever conceived.
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The Gryphon Heist by James R. Hannibal is the first book in his Talia Inger series. A rookie CIA agent, an elite team of thieves, and top-secret defense technology, spell instant suspense! Talia Inger is assigned to the forgotten department of Eastern Europe known as “Other”. With her team of thieves and her civilian partner she must access the Gryphon, a high-altitude data storage; before a known terrorist gets to them. Once I started this book, I had a hard time putting it down. It read like a fast-paced spy movie! The twists and turns kept me turning pages. The way Tyler leads Talia back to God and helps her forgive was woven in so well that it never took away from the “action feel” of the story. If you can’t stand nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat suspense then this story isn’t for you.
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
Brand new to the CIA Operations Directorate, Talia Inger is desperate to cut her teeth on a real spy mission. Moscow Station is her dream, but after messing up on her final exam, she’s instead assigned to the purgatory of the Other Europe desk and sent to Moldova to babysit a businessman. When things suddenly turn unexpectedly lethal and Talia realises there’s a highly-placed mole in CIA feeding information to her enemies, she has to put together a team of independents to pull off one of the most daring heists the spy world has ever seen… to save the lives of everyone in Washington, D.C.
It’s Mission: Impossible meets Oceans 11, and it’s honestly great, rip-roaring fun. Eddie, Talia’s techie sidekick who she went through CIA training with, is the only person she’s 100% sure she can trust. Everyone else’s loyalty and motivations are in question, and there are several times in the book where Talia has to make choices between the lesser of two evils, learning that things aren’t necessarily black and white.
One thing I will mention, because it might put some readers off, is that there’s a degree of overt Christianity in the book. A principal character who is eventually revealed to be a ‘good guy’ (mostly) because of his conversion to Christianity after an incident which capped off a very shady past. If that bothers you, you might want to give this one a miss, but if you’re a fan of action-adventure stories with a diverse cast of characters and a really unusual heist at the climax, it’s a terrific read. Five stars.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.