Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I now know where Kiev is

The last geography class I remember taking was in fourth grade. Scary. Well, thanks to Conspiracy in Kiev by Noel Hynd, I now know where Kiev is (Ukraine!).


I picked up this book because it was about Russia and Ukraine. It's a thriller--think Robert Ludlum or someone along those lines. As such, the characters tend to be a little flat, with more telling than showing. Sure, there's action, but I think I'm more of a character girl. The book is also a bit long and since I wasn't in love with like Rites of Spring (Break), it took me several days to finish off.

Alex is an agent with the Treasury...but somehow gets involved with the CIA. Anyway, she's sent over to Kiev to act as an emissary/bodyguard to a major Ukrainian mobster, because the U.S. president is coming over for a visit and the CIA doesn't want any trouble. Well, there's trouble and people die and Alex's mobster disappears. Everyone thinks he's behind the shootings.

So...about that mobster...Alex is repeatedly told to STICK LIKE GLUE to the mobster, Yuri FedersomethingRussian. It's repeated numerous times; one CIA guy basically tells her to seduce him so she can spend even more time with him. So what does she do? She spends like three hours a day with the mobster, if that. How is that like GLUE, Alex??? And why did no one call her out on that?

Anyway, fast forward a few months and Alex is randomly off to South America for a totally different job. SUPPOSEDLY these two jobs end up tying together but I literally was thinking "what is this? this plotline is weak!" while reading it. Yeah, more shootings happen and then she's taken back to Europe where more shootings occur because she's a target or something. People want her dead. And since there's more books in the series (yet to come out), my guess is that they'll keep after her.

***Spoiler alert***
Can I just say that I knew her fiance was going to be knocked off? I knew it! I kept on waiting for him to die at any moment. And why did Alex almost die at the end? The bullet evidently didn't even really penetrate that far.
****

Rating: 6.5/10

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