Review: The Temporary Agent

I was determined to shrink my weight budget down as much as possible for this year's Tour of the Alps, which meant that rather than preload my Kindle with books that are paid for in cash, I went for a free book knowing that the only time I was likely to get a chance to read was on a solo flight.

The Temporary Agent is a thriller. It features a former Navy Seabee, Tom Sexton, who had a honorable discharge, and rather than accept employment in private security, went for the "off-the-grid odd job man" career option. That is, until he gets a call from a friend who asks him to help find Charlie Cahill, who saved his life.

What follows is an unlikely sequence of events where Tom figures out what's happening, is betrayed and in turn puts at risk his girlfriend and friends, and the body count racks up while he tries to prevent a major terrorist incident from being enabled.

The book is compelling readable and could easily be an action movie, but like most action movies, the ending leaves you cold. There's no sense of redemption, nor is there a sense that the whole thing wasn't a meaningless struggle. Even the villain seems unlikely. I'd recommend reading any of Richard K. Morgan's novels instead.