Review: Great debut novel
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 8, 2013
BetrayalBritish agent, Nikki Sinclair, is on an intelligence mission in South Africa. The question to be answered is- `is the assignment a cover up job, or is it genuine and crucial to the British government and security'?Sinclair finds herself deep into an extremely dangerous undercover operation. Her position is fraught with danger and she fears for her life.When Sinclair meets up with her ex lover, the lover she's been unable to get out of her mind and is still deeply in love with, she is easily persuaded back into her bed. Unfortunately, Sinclair's Mossad lover may not be all she seems, causing Sinclair to confront her demons and question her sexuality, integrity and whether she is still cut out for her job. Sinclair's most pressing concern is getting out of Kinshasa in one piece.Sinclair suffers a brutal assault carried out by another agent. She's badly hurt physically and mentally and is forced to take time out of the field and sit behind a desk. She hates it.When Sinclair is browbeaten into accepting another mission, before she's mentally ready, she finds the assignment is her absolute worst nightmare. She is transported to a nuclear plant in Iraq as an undercover agent. It's here that Sinclair has to fight hard to escape her demons, her passion for her ex lover and the worst nightmare of all, the sex crazed Pierre Harcourt.Sinclair is at an all time low. Who can she trust? Her own side have betrayed her, her lover left her for dead after betraying her. Maybe it's best to trust only herself and her own instincts. But, can she even trust herself?This is Jaye Rothman's debut novel. It's a fast paced, action packed, thrilling spy story. I have no idea how any country runs their intelligence operations, so all I can say is, the storyline made perfect sense and appears to be very well researched.The characters are well formed and multidimensional. They all play their parts very well, whether they are the goodies or the baddies.I have no intention of putting in any spoilers. But I did have a few problems getting my head round the way Sinclair was treated by her own country after her return from a particularly dreadful mission and her being assigned a subsequent mission before she was ready. I wasn't overjoyed with some of the violent sex scenes. But, it did appear to be essential to the story. I just found it very hard to take. This is only my own impressions of the horrific torturous events suffered by Sinclair over a period of time.All in all, this book is very well written. The story flows along nicely. Apparently, this is the first in a series of books. I will definitely be looking out for the next book in the series.