Finished Deep Sleep by Steven Konkoly. This was an Amazon First Read from earlier this year. It is a brand new series from Konkoly with a new lead character, Devin Gray. Deep Sleep does bring back some characters and story arcs from his earlier series. It clearly played to the news cycle’s focus on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
Deep Sleep is an interesting take on the techno-thriller genre. The story premise is interesting. The characters on both sides are very skilled at what they do, but they are all not “MacGyver.” They leverage the latest in tech and weaponry. The pace and prose made it a pretty easy read, but the story does end with a lot of open threads. It is also very much a “good guys versus bad guys” story.
Book 2, Coming Dawn, is due out in October. I expect it will make the list. I am also going to check out some of Konkoly’s other series.
Deep Sleep
By Steven Konkoly
Countersurveillance expert Devin Gray is unwittingly thrown headfirst into dangerous new territory after the death of his mother. Helen Gray, a paranoid and disgraced former CIA officer, believed she was on the verge of preventing a national catastrophe—a mission worth dying for. Others, including Devin, believe she was chasing delusions. Until he finds what she left behind.
With the help of longtime friend and former Marine helicopter pilot Marnie Young and a loyal team of covert operatives Helen summoned just before her death, Devin is propelled into a high-stakes chase across the country. What he uncovers, clue by clue, is a conspiracy more widespread and insidious than anyone could have imagined.
Now it’s Devin’s mission to destroy a covert network poised to deliver a fatal blow to the future of the United States. And also to vindicate his mother, by seeing the mission through to its treacherous end.
Published February 1, 2022
365 pages (print)