Very timely FBI thriller espionage book that will entertain you for days. This nonstop action will have you thinking of our current political climate. We could all use a storyline like this to take us away from our current shenanigans. 4 Star Recommended read.

Fans of the series will be treated to scenes with regular characters, but one in particular that made such a splash in Tokyo Kills now returns center stage, so much that he’s referenced in the title.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

Wow, what a great read The Spy Across the Table is! There was action from beginning to end, and the story stretched from Washington D.C. to San Francisco all the way to Tokyo, Korea and China. The descriptions of the different locales were amazing and so detailed. They added a lot to the book. I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting.

Jim Brodie is a P.I. and an art dealer in San Francisco and Tokyo. He takes one of his closest friends to see a kabuki performance in Washington D.C. and sets him up to visit the set designer, another friend of his. After the play, Jim is shocked to hear gunshots and finds both his friends dead. FLOTUS and then POTUS get involved and ask Jim to solve the murders.

Jim ends up tangling with a savvy Chinese spy, Homeland Security, the NSA, and the police and security services of several countries. The sophisticated plot takes many twists and turns and left me breathless. The story involves cyber security, hacking, North Korea, China and their ambitions as a country and struck me as being very timely.

The characters are so well written. Jim Brodie is kind of a reluctant P.I. He wants to solve the murders of his friends, and he has the experience, but you sense that he'd rather be dealing antiques than going one on one with a tricky Chinese spy. It's too bad he's so good at solving strange mysteries.

I highly recommend this book and think it will be a summer hit. I'm going to read the other Barry Lancet books in the series.

This is the first in the series that I've read. While the introduction of Japanese culture lifts it a bit above the norm, it is, in the end, a rather formulaic rendering.