Right off the bat, Shadow Masters is a dark and visceral story that requires you to take a deep cleansing hot shower afterwards to rid yourself of the flashing images of the worst of the humanity. If you think his Drake Woolf stories were dark, you’re in for a lesson. JT Patten takes you deep in the heart of the ugly, less glamorous side of espionage with fast-paced action, gut-wrenching scenes that may haunt you for a while, and highly realistic and flawed characters even when it comes to the protagonist.
Sean Havens is off on a contracting mission in a third world country when his family is harmed by an unknown organization disguising itself as an ordinary criminal gang to throw off its scent for the investigating authorities. The story continues to push Havens in purgatory until he decides to take the law in his own hands and seek those who harmed his family. The nefarious organization behind it has big plans for Havens and if he wants to survive, he must outwit enemies who he may not even want to believe are his enemies.
As a big fan of JT Patten’s Drake Woolf series, I knew I was in for a treat. The storytelling is meticulously detailed with pertinent information and subtle foreshadowing to keep the story pumping at full steam and the readers guessing furiously as to what can happen next, only to be amazed when the twists hit like a freight train. JT Patten’s expertise in the dark arts of espionage pays dividends in Sean Havens’ character development as a riveting operative trained expertly in both intel and kinetic operations that mirror real-world headlines. The bad guys are despicable and utterly evil, and you’ll cheer for Havens to exact his revenge in the most brutal fashion, which he most certainly will. The blood spatters right out of the pages.
The action hits fast and hard with vivid descriptions of hand-to-hand combat and fast-paced shootouts written with the principle of shoot first and shoot well. I wouldn’t want to mess with Sean Havens in any way whatsoever. The action serves not just to get the heart rates rising but also to showcase the pragmatic brutal environment of combat where decisions are made in a split second. You will shudder at some of the decisions Havens makes in the heat of combat.
Shadow Masters easily rattled my top thriller list long before I reached the last page. Espionage, action, drama; it adroitly balances all aspects of a profoundly captivating thriller. The ending jarred me because I was not expecting that cliffhanger! A thriller fan has not truly explored the genre if they haven’t read JT Patten.
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