Ryan Kealey Series by Andrew Britton
Ryan Kealey #1
The American
Andrew Britton
At thirty-three, Ryan Kealey has achieved more in his military and CIA career than most men can dream of in a lifetime. He’s also seen the worst life has to offer and is lucky to have survived it. But being left alone with his demons is no longer an option. The CIA needs him badly, because the enemy they’re facing is former U.S. soldier Jason March. Ryan knows all about March – he trained him. He knows they’re dealing with one of the most ruthless assassins in the world, a master of many languages, an explosives expert, a superb sharpshooter who can disappear like a shadow and who is capable of crimes they cannot begin to imagine. And now, March has resurfaced on the global stage, aligning himself with a powerful Middle East terror network whose goal is nothing less than the total destruction of the United States. Teaming up with beautiful and tenacious British-born agent Naomi Kharmai, Ryan intends to break every rule in order to hunt down his former pupil, whatever the cost to himself. As Ryan puts together the pieces of a terrifying puzzle, and as the elusive March taunts him, always staying one step ahead, he discovers the madman’s crusade is personal as well as political – and Ryan himself is an unwitting pawn. With the clock ticking down and the fate of the country resting uneasily on his shoulders, Ryan is caught in a desperate game of cat-and-mouse with the most cunning opponent he’s ever faced, one who will never stop until he’s committed the ultimate act of evil – a man who is all the more deadly for being one of our own.From Publishers WeeklyThe titular character of 24-year-old Britton's debut thriller is no patriot. Jason March, a blond al-Qaeda operative with a ferocious grudge against the U.S.A., kicks off an orgy of revenge by blowing up Senate Majority Leader Daniel Levy's motorcade, slaughtering the senator, his aide and assorted Secret Service personnel. Assigned to hunt down this killer is ex-CIA agent Ryan Kealey, March's former commanding officer when they were both Special Forces soldiers in the U.S. Army. While on a secret mission years before, March wounded Kealey and murdered everyone else on the team. Now, Langley sends the uniquely qualified Kealey—along with CIA counterterrorism expert Naomi Kharmai—after the unstoppable killing machine. Other than the mildly interesting March, there's little original material. The evil characters are numbingly familiar—al-Zarqawi and bin Laden loom large—and the usual Arab minions and murderers play out their predictable fictional roles. The writing never rises above the pedestrian: "The sands of the endless desert south of Kabul burned beneath the fiery orb above." Readers open to another formulaic Arab terrorist story may enjoy this one, but anyone looking for something new will find it ordinary and tedious. (Mar. 7) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThis debut thriller by a 24-year-old author stars an unconventional CIA agent who must track down a renegade former comrade-in-arms. Ryan Kealey, the hero, is a tough, embittered ex-CIA agent; he is engaging enough but hardly original. Jason March, the former U.S. soldier now allied with terrorists, is appropriately villainous, but, again, we've seen his like before. And the story itself, while solidly structured, doesn't stray much from formula. Is it a bad book? Not at all: it's a well-told tale, and Britton shows a great deal of promise. If his next novel is more inventive than his first, that promise may be realized. David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Ryan Kealey #1
Ryan Kealey #2
Ryan Kealey #4
Ryan Kealey #6
The Courier: A Ryan Kealey Thriller
Andrew Britton
Ryan Kealey now knows he'll never really put the game behind him. He's seen too much, and the instinct is too deeply hardwired. But the game itself has changed. Between tense interagency "cooperation" that gums the works, and an overreliance on data-crunching and wiz-kid tech, today's US intelligence service has lost a step to its ever-bolder, viciously adaptable global enemies. And thanks to an incredible discovery in the Arctic, those enemies now have a nuke - capable of unleashing unthinkable terror. To hunt down the devastating package before it can be used, Kealey forms an unlikely partnership with the young Farsi-speaking nuclear physicist Rayhan Jafari. But once on the ground, with technology and their by-the-numbers command failing them, they're on their own - trusting only their guts and each other - to conduct the dirty business of combating horrific destruction.**
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Ryan Kealey #7
Threatcon Delta
Andrew Britton
"Britton's plots seem to jump straight out of the headlines." --St. Louis Post Dispatch"Well written and exciting…perfect escape reading!" --Tampa Tribune on *The American *Ryan Kealey has no doubt that the forces seeking to tip this teetering world into chaos are just getting better. Better equipped, better organized, and, most terrifying of all, more patient. And despite all the ELINT, the all-seeingelectronic intelligence gathered at Langley, nothing stops a devastating attack from ripping through the heart of San Antonio, Texas. Wrenched from retirement to work the Texas tragedy, Kealey learns of a far greater threat in the Middle East. A radical terrorist group claims possession of a powerful ancient relic, the Staff of Moses, which they will use to unleash plagues across the globe. To avert unimaginable devastation, lone-wolf Kealey, armed with little more than intuition, must prevent , a disaster of biblical proportions that may well be inevitable. "Brilliantly well written with plotting sharper than a fence full of razor wire, a sizzling page- turner." --Brad Thor on The Operative"Absorbing…extraordinarily hard to put down." --Charlotte Observer * on The American***"A gripping saga ripped out of the late****
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