The take

A fabulously wealthy Saudi prince, who is also his country's intelligence chief, leaves Paris' George V hotel in a long motorcade destined for the airport. Corsican gangster Tino Coluzzi stops the motorcade and nets more than 600,000 Euros in cash. Only after the heist does he discover a handwritten letter that could have a tectonic impact on world politics. In London, Simon Riske lives quietly, meticulously restoring exotic sports cars and doing freelance investigations for banks and insurance companies. But the American-born Riske is known to the CIA as a one-time associate of the Corsican Mafia in Marseille. Earlier, Coluzzi set Riske up for a prison stretch in a French jail, so now, two decades later, Riske relishes the chance for payback. But he must contend with a psychopathic female Russian agent run by the head of Russia's foreign intelligence agency. Reich's previous novels have sold well, and it seems likely that this one will, too. There's plenty of action, interesting bits of tradecraft, and well-sketched locales in London, Paris, and Marseille. Best of all is Reich's succinct prose style.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2017 Booklist

Freelance spy Simon Riske, the hero of this tense if predictable series launch from Thriller Award-winner Reich (Invasion of Privacy), operates a high-end auto repair shop in central London when he's not doing spook work. An American expat who grew up in France's street gang world, Riske is hired-most likely by the CIA-to track down Tino Coluzzi, who engineered the ambush robbery of a Saudi prince after he left his Paris hotel for the airport. Of more importance, however, is a letter that Coluzzi unwittingly stole from the prince, the contents of which could seriously undermine the Russian government. The CIA wants the letter, as does a Russian assassin and her stop-at-nothing handler. Riske, however, is driven by personal motivation: back when they were fellow gangsters, Coluzzi betrayed Riske during a bank heist, leading to his capture and long imprisonment. Riske has been itching for payback ever since. Likable, rascally, and suave, Riske is as distinctive as Reich's other series lead, Jonathan Ransom. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Best-selling author Reich (Invasion of Privacy) launches a new espionage thriller series featuring Simon Riske, whose former criminal skills now serve him well as a freelance industrial spy. By day he runs a business in London restoring luxury cars, while on the side he retrieves stolen property worth millions for insurance companies and unearths information for the British Secret Service. Riske prefers under-the-radar jobs, but then a CIA agent asks him to find a sensitive letter stolen by Tino Coluzzi during a daring robbery of a visiting Saudi prince in Paris. Coluzzi is a part of Riske's past that he'd like to forget, but hunting down the man who set him up to go to prison is a job he can't pass up. The chase leads him across France, with American, French, and Russian secret service agents on his tail and a growing realization that he can't trust anyone-except maybe Parisian police detective Nikki Perez. Verdict Reich's stylish and action-packed thriller introduces an appealing new protagonist, a troubled youth with a criminal record who becomes a brilliant businessman and spy. Recommend to fans of Daniel Silva.-Melissa DeWild, Spring Lake Dist. Lib., MI © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A reluctant agent pursues a mysterious document through multiple layers of deception and misdirection.Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Saud's motorcade is ambushed in Paris, and most of hell breaks loose. Tino Coluzzi, a member of the Corsican Mafia, has robbed the prince not only of 600,000 Euros, but also of a lettera letter that Vassily Borodin, director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, hopes to use to oust the Russian president. The prince, who also happens to be the chief of Saudi Arabia's secret police, has acted as Borodin's agent in acquiring the document, and Coluzzi is acting as the agent of an as-yet unnamed American. The American wants the letter; Coluzzi gets to keep the money. But Coluzzi is greedy and decides to keep the letter too, which sets in motion two new agents. Borodin's is Valentina Asanova, a beautiful Russian assassin; the American, now named Barnaby Neill, calls on Simon Riske, an American living in London with a business restoring high-end sports cars. Riske has a shadowy background and possesses unusual talents and skills. He's been in banking and also in a French prison; he was a street hoodlum, but a fellow-prisoner Jesuit priest gave him college-level instruction and a not-so-formal education in self-defense. He is an expert pickpocket, first seen stealing back a valuable stolen watch. Though he is reluctant to work for Neill, he agrees when he learns that Coluzzi is the thiefhe has a long-standing grievance against Coluzzi. Nikki Perez, a Paris police detective, meets with Riske in Paris, and though at first she has her own career to tend to, eventually she becomes an ally. All Riske's talents and skills are called upon as he tries to retrieve the letter and get a measure of revenge against Coluzzi. He even figures out the deeper game being played. Riske is a likable character, as is Perez, but neither is really compelling, and the rest are pretty predictable: the blonde Russian assassin, an inscrutable CIA mandarin, a blustering French police captain. The evocations of Provence are nice, the plotting is competently handled, but in the end there's not enough sizzle.Solid if underwhelming jaunt through France. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.