Book Review: The Paris Betrayal by James Hannibal

After a rough mission in Rome involving the discovery of a devastating bioweapon, Company spy Ben Calix returns to Paris to find his perfectly ordered world has collapsed. A sniper attack. An ambush. A call for help that brings French SWAT forces down on his head. Ben is out. This is a severance--reserved for incompetents and traitors.

Searching for answers and anticipating a coming attack, Ben and a woman swept up in his misfortunes must travel across Europe to find the sniper who tried to kill him, the medic who saved his life, the schoolmaster who trained him, and an upstart hacker from his former team. More than that, Ben must come to grips with his own insignificance as the Company's plan to stop Leviathan from unleashing the bioweapon at any cost moves forward without him—and he struggles against the infection that is swiftly claiming territory within his own body.

My rating:

Award-winning author James R. Hannibal rachets up the tension on every page of this suspenseful new thriller. 
I think it's safe to say that my first James Hannibal book was a smashing success!

Plus, the poor dude just didn't feel good. Let's give him some slack.

The suspense wasn't keep-you-up-with-nightmares tense, but definitely edge-of-your-seat tense. The fight scenes were fantastic. The plot line was so good. The characters were likable, buuuuuut somehow they seemed...shallow? Like, I understood that Ben was under a great deal of stress, and he did well, but...idk. I failed to seriously connect. I did understand his want/need to fix things and set them right. And his desperation when things didn't go according to plan. (Am I a fixer that has issues when things don't go according to plan? Yes. Yes, I am.) But as far as emotional connection goes...nah. (I did love how it wasn't your typical top-of-the-food-chain-agent story, but more of a lowest-agent-on-the-totem-pole story)

Clara was endearing and spunky. The bad guys were...your average bad guys. All in all, there was nothing really remarkable about the characters.

And the message? Well, honestly, I didn't even realize there was supposed to be a message until I read a friend's review, mentioning the author's note. (I thought I'd read the author's note, but *cough* apparently I didn't read it well enough) It was a good story, engaging plot line, and I absolutely loved the overall story, but with shallow(ish) characters and lacking a meaty message, it fell just short of five stars.

As far as romance goes, there was a liiiiitle kissing and terms of endearment, but there was such a tiny amount, I'm not even gonna complain about it!

Also—that end? LOVED IT. Like, AMAZING twist.

So. A shorter review, but I definitely recommend this one! Four solid stars!

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher for promotional purposes. All thoughts are my own.

Let's talk—what do you look for in a suspense novel?