Matthew Betley marks a triumphant return to the thrillerverse with a bonafide action-packed narrative built on an emotionally charged character-driven arc in The Council.
To the regular joes and janes, Owen Pierce is a damn-good lawyer. But what hides beneath the veneer is a man who understands that the law itself sometimes doesn’t give justice. So he spends his remaining hours as a member of The Council, an organization that trains and deploys assassins for the greater good, or so it seems. When a mission pits Owen against the last person he expected to fight, he begins to see that The Council has its own blinders that are more sinister than anything he’s stopped so far. Feeling betrayed, Owen will scorch Earth to exact retribution, and save the free world while he’s at it.
I picked up The Council knowing next to nothing about the book. All I read was Matthew Betley’s name and that was enough to get me to try. This is perhaps the best book of 2026 I’ve read yet and we haven’t even reached the year. This statement may sound bold but it’s backed up by logic and pure adrenaline-fun that Betley excels at infusing into his stories. The Council boasts some of the most vivid and cinematically engaging action sequences rocking tactical and technical authenticity in every single page. Whether it’s a fight between a katana and a knife, a brazen heavy machine gun shootout, or a calculated clearing of hostile quarters with CQB, Betley goes solid on all kills.
The action works as great as it does because of the underlying foundation, which in this case are the characters. Owen Pierce and his team reflect on the best of us, as flawed and broken as they are, because they do what’s right even when the easiest path is to avoid what’s right. This moral compass helps install a strong bond between you and the characters without any drag in its connection. The story is direct, unflinching, and raw in its depiction of trauma and pain that molds our heroes into the warriors they become. Owen Pierce and his team became instant new favorites before I even finished the whole book.
The Council is a riveting roller-coaster thriller bursting with awesome and memorable action sequences and taut plotting connected together with a strong emotional undercurrent that serves as the bedrock for this adventure. I can’t wait to see this take off into a multi-book series and even a movie/tv-show. It’s that superb.
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