Scott Brodie and his new partner Maggie Taylor who are CID investigators are in the commanding officers, office given a new assignment. When Scott sees who it is, he asks to see all of the evidence. They are then shown a video of Captain Kyle Mercer who had walked away from his unit and then taken prisoner. The last video was him killing his captors. Not having been seen since he has shown up in Venezuela. After interviewing the person who said they saw him, Scott and Maggie end up on a wild ride in Venezuela.
The book is fast paced and the banter between the two main characters is what keeps the story moving along. Also, with Scott not always doing things by the book which frustrates Maggie. The twists and turns that the author takes you on keeps you going as a reader which helps the story as well. I liked the characters and the story also. A very good book.

Deserter by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille
Nelson DeMille, well-known for his John Corey series, collaborates with his screenwriter son to bring another thrilling, humorous bestseller to his fan. With this title DeMille offers the first in a new series featuring two Criminal Investigation Division agents, Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor. They are tasked with bringing an Afghan war deserter, Captain Kyle Mercer, who had escaped from the Taliban back to the United States from Venezuela where he has been seen--dead or alive. Brodie and Taylor are not in Kansas anymore as they navigate the dark and criminal sectors of this economically challenged South American country. What is Captain Mercer's story? Have they been set up? Who will make it out alive? Enjoy this novel to the last word!

Simon & Schuster and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of The Deserter. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Captain Kyle Mercer of Delta Force disappeared from his post in Afghanistan and is thought to be a defector. As a trained assassin and holder of crucial intelligence, Mercer must be found before he releases delicate intel to the wrong people. Maggie Taylor and Scott Brodie of the CID are tasked with bringing him back alive, following reports of a sighting in Venezuela. This complicated mission is made even more so, as Brodie does not know who to trust. Can the pair successfully complete their task with minimal loss of life?

The Deserter is around 200 pages too long, with this being a generous assessment. The authors get so bogged down in the details that they forget that someone has to read the story. Nelson DeMille's novels are usually fast paced and compelling, with interesting and well developed characters. When breaking this novel down to its essential elements only, the story is simplistic at best: a man leaves his post without approval, so those in authority dispatch a pair of soldiers to track him down. Everything else is window dressing and there is just too much of that. The Deserter is a missed opportunity by the authors and not one that I would recommend to other readers.

After taking us into post-unification Vietnam in Upcountry and Cuba in The Cuban Affair, Nelson DeMillem with Alex DeMille, takes us into another hostile country in The Deserter. The characters are well drawn, and the Venezuelan settings are described in such detail that it is obvious the author(s) were there. But there seemed to be an unevenness to the storytelling. Some parts crackled and some parts plodded along. I wonder if this is an indication of which author wrote which part, or if it's just the way the story went. I enjoyed this book and look forward to more novels by the authors.

It was a fantastic thriller to read. However, it had a bit too much violence (torture) for my taste. And it seemed to have more pages/ wording that really necessary. I can't tell if that it because of the duo writing it, or what. I really liked the characters and the plot. I have really enjoyed Nelson DeMille's books in the past, and this one is a solid 4/5!

Nelson DeMille is one of my all-time favorite authors, and I have read every one of the novels he has published. So I was absolutely thrilled to get an advance copy of his latest venture, courtesy of NetGalley. Like my other favorite author, Stephen King, Nelson DeMille has teamed up with his son, Alex, for this new outing. I think they are a winning combination.

The Deserter is about two Army CID officers who are ordered to Venezuela to bring back Kyle Mercer, a Delta Force member who deserted his team in Afghanistan. Mercer was subsequently captured by the Taliban, but escaped after two years. He then publicly resigned his military commission in a dramatic way and then disappeared. An old Army buddy happens to see Mercer in Venezuela and report this sighting to the Army CID, thus starting the action.

DeMille does a deep dive into today's violent and ravaged Venezuela, which I found fascinating. I had a very close friend from Venezuela so I've watched its decline with close interest. Other reviewers found that this deep dive detracted from the story, but I strongly disagree. I think that his attention to background is what makes DeMille a genius storyteller.

The two main characters of the novel (beyond Mercer) are Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor, the CID officer. I would describe Brodie as a combination of Jack Reacher and DeMille's other primary character, John Corey. He's as single minded and well-trained as Reacher but has a bit of a sense of humor. I thought both Brodie and Taylor were well-defined and well-developed. I was immersed in every page of this novel and give it a high recommendation, 4.5 out of 5 stars. I only take away a half star because I thought the ending was much too abrupt. I think readers at least deserved an Epilogue to answer some loose threads.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing a digital ARC. (Sorry it took so long to publish this review.)

Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor are military cops and any similarity between what they do and what the men and woman in blue do is purely semantical. What seems like a challenging assignment -- trace and bring to justice an Army deserter -- takes on the potential for a dead-end mission when they head to lawless, starving, chaotic Venezuela. Their search morphs into a Heart of Darkness type journey that is scarier than seeing Marlon Brando in a cave in Apocalypse Now. Nelson DeMille has always been a fine storyteller and The Deserter keeps up his rep and burnishes it. Taut action, peppery dialogue and interesting characters make for an excellent read.

This was a fantastic book! Nelson DeMille is now writing with his son Alex and they make a great team. They introduce two new characters, Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor. Their adventure takes place in Venezuela, where they're hunting a deserter who was captured by the Taliban and eventually escaped. The country is vividly described and, as in previous books, the characters are fascinating and the action non-stop.

I highly recommend this book.

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

This DeMille thriller, The Deserter, was a mixed bag for me. On the plus side, it's an easy read. On the minus side, I was constantly a step ahead of what were intended as plot twists, and I found Scott Brodie an annoying protagonist. I read thrillers when I'm not writing them, so I guess I'm a tough reader to please, but I had expected something more impressive. I write DS Kane's bestselling Spies Lie series and try to make the plot twists both unexpected and inevitable, so I know first-hand just how difficult it is to pull off, but I expect more from an author who has often hit the bestsellers list and has had movies produced from his books.

Military criminal investigators Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor are called in to find Captain Kyle Mercer, a former soldier in the army’s elite Delta Force unit, who’s gone AWOL. The story is that Mercer uncharacteristically deserted his post, was captured by the Taliban and tortured, but then miraculously escaped. Now he’s been tracked all the way to Venezuela, and it’s up to Brodie and Taylor to bring him back to the States so he can be formally court-martialed. It won’t be easy. Brodie and Taylor will have to travel deep into corrupt Venezuela to figure out where Mercer is hiding—and they may uncover some dirty government secrets along the way.

MY THOUGHTS
I read one of DeMille’s earlier books, The Cuban Affair, and really enjoyed it. I was expecting good things from The Deserter, and it didn’t disappoint—in fact, I would say it’s even better. The plot moves a lot faster, and even though the characters are still a bit stereotypical (e.g., our unphasable hero, Scott Brodie, delivers quippy one-liners like it’s his job), they are also a lot more believable and fleshed out. I loved the premise of the story and, I really enjoyed the setting. I felt like I was in Venezuela and actually learned a lot about this beautiful, nutrient-rich—but struggling—country. (On a side note, this was an excellent book to read before watching the newest season of Jack Ryan on Amazon, which is also set in Venezuela…).

In short, this was an entertaining action-focused novel that kept me feverishly flipping pages until the very end. A solid five stars from me.

2.5*
I am likely in the minority here...

This is the second book I’ve read by Nelson DeMille. His prior book The Cuban Affair took our lead character on a trek deep within Cuba. And I was able to view the country through Mr. DeMille’s expert narration and knowledge of the country.

With this latest release it seems he attempted to recreate that same air of mystery within Venezuela. And while I learned much about this country (I had little prior knowledge of), it was really too much. It began feeling a bit more like a politics/geography lesson while the story-line seemed to take a backseat.

If you enjoy learning about different countries with only a dash of suspense, then this will be the perfect book for you! Personally When I pick up a book looking for suspense and mystery I want that to be up-close and center. Just not what I expected.

A buddy read with Susanne that left us both frustrated at times!

Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss and Simon and Schuster for an ARC to read and review.

If you have never read a book by Nelson DeMille, you do not know what you are missing. If you have read a DeMille book, then you are probably already added The Deserter to your TBR list (or stack). The Deserter does not disappoint.

The author captures the tensions of the situation and the helplessness of the people in Venezuela perfectly. The poverty is breathtaking and the fear of th establishment is palpable. The twists and turns are numerous and will keep you reading long into the night.

I cannot recommend The Deserter more. It is every bit as good as the John Corey series.

Author Nelson DeMille has taken the inspiration for THE DESERTER from an actual news account of a soldier disappearing from his post. It was unclear at the time whether the soldier had wandered off or been kidnapped and his ensuing captivity further muddied the issue of his possible culpability. In this tale, there are many more details added, in true Nelson DeMille-fashion, designed to entertain readers and create a tense and exciting thriller. There are plenty of seedy characters, low-lifes and conspiracies to keep the plot moving. This is a fast book that is difficult to put down. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Deserter is the first collaboration by the father and son team of Nelson and Alex DeMille.

"Captain Kyle Mercer, a member of Delta Force, deserts his unit and is captured by the Taliban. After two years video emerges of his escape. Now CID agents, Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor, are tasked with bringing him back to the US to face desertion charges. They soon realize there is danger in the story behind Mercer's disappearance and some high up the food chain don't want the story told."

New characters here. Brodie is very similar to John Corey. Lots of action and tension in the setting of Venezuela - described as corrupt and on the edge of chaos. If you're a fan of DeMille, you will enjoy this book. Fast-paced and full of DeMille's sardonic humor. And there is also darkness in the brothels of Caracas and in the mind of the former Captain Kyle Mercer.

Excellent read from the DeMille team

Published in the UK in 2019; published by Simon & Schuster on October 22, 2019

I love the John Corey series and I’ve enjoyed most of Nelson DeMille’s other work. I can’t tell how much of The Deserter, co-authored with his son Alex, is Nelson’s and how much is Alex’s. That’s a good thing because the collaboration has not produced an obvious drop-off in quality. On the other hand, the protagonist is sort of a Corey clone and the atmosphere is similar to Nelson’s last novel, The Cuban Affair, complete with relentless bashing of what our president would call a shithole country. At the same time, the novel’s political takes (as expressed by its characters) are a bit less astute than those in The Cuban Affair. Still, I easily ignored the politics and raced through the novel because DeMille & Son know their craft. The story produces thrills and that’s what a successful thriller should do.

Broadly following the premise of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and its movie counterpart, Apocalypse Now, The Deserter imagines that a Delta Force captain abandoned his command in Afghanistan, was captured by the Taliban, escaped, beheaded his captors, and made his way to Venezuela, where he took command of local mercenaries so he could help them resist America’s undeclared military interests. The captain is more similar to Coppola’s Kurtz than to Conrad’s, in that he has been driven mad not just by the jungle he inhabits but by the military service that shaped his sense of destiny.

Scott Brodie is a chief warrant officer. He and his partner, Maggie Taylor, have been tasked with finding the Delta Force officer, Kyle Mercer. Someone who knows Mercer spotted him in Venezuela. Brodie’s orders are to bring him back without worrying about legal niceties like extradition. Given that Mercer is formidable, the assignment seems like it might be more than a couple of warrant officers can handle, but Brodie is up for it because, well, this is a thriller.

The Venezuela setting gives the characters a chance to blame Venezuela’s woes on socialism, a simplistic analysis of a complex country that readers with more nuanced views can safely ignore. The atmosphere, both in Caracas and in the jungle, is dangerous. Why Caracas is dangerous is irrelevant to the plot, despite all the pontificating about socialism. Fortunately, the father-and-son writing team eventually stop dwelling on the why and start focusing on the action, which is all that matters in an action-driven thriller. Chases and fights, in a brothel where Mercer was hanging out and in a jungle camp where Mercer is training mercenaries, are credible and exciting.

The plot benefits from a layer of intrigue as Brodie and Taylor struggle to understand why a Delta Force hero would desert his post. The explanation is based on a conspiracy that, given the American government’s conspiratorial history, isn’t hard to swallow.

Brodie is snarky, although he’s Corey-lite when it comes to snark. He isn’t big on planning. He has a tendency to ignore orders and charge ahead to complete the mission as he defines it, a fairly common attribute of military thriller heroes. He’s selectively moralistic (another common feature of military thriller heroes), coming down on Taylor for an arguable betrayal of her position while Brodie deserves to be dishonorably discharged for repeatedly disobeying orders.

Taylor is tough but doesn’t have much personality, beyond playing the humanizing role to which tough women in thrillers are often relegated (they keep the testosterone driven males from killing everyone in sight). The sexual tension between Brodie and Taylor is predictable but it doesn’t interfere with the story. Readers don’t expect deep characterization in a book like this so its absence shouldn’t be disappointing. Instead, readers of The Deserter will get what they are paying for when they buy a thriller. Predictable or not, flawed or not, the thriller delivers its thrills.

RECOMMENDED

2 Stars.


Boy oh boy - Nelson DeMille - I am disappointed in one your novels. for the first time ever, and I am almost speechless.

I got through “The Deserter” - barely. It was a buddy read (thank you Kaceey for hanging in there with me!). I am a long time fan of Nelson DeMille and have read every book he has ever written and his latest novel (co-written with his son Alex DeMille) does not hold a candle to any of his prior novels. Where is the wit, the dry humor, and sarcasm that we have come to expect of his characters? Instead what he has given us is long drawn out passages that bored us to tears. So much history that I feel like I received history lessons in both “The Deserter” and his prior book “The Cuban Affair” - though that novel was actually pretty great and the main character in that book - Mac was witty and sarcastic and did in fact remind me of my favorite Nelson DeMille character John Corey.

Here, we have Captain Kyle Mercer, a Delta Force Officer who disappeared in Afghanistan, and was then captured and tortured by the Taliban. After escaping a video surfaced leaving no question that he did in fact, desert. Thereafter he is spotted in Venezuela and CID sends officers after him and so it begins.

CID Warrant Officers Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor begin their operation in one of the most dangerous parts of the world. Venezuela. Where it’s not safe to go out after dark or anywhere where there aren’t armed guards. Of course, Brodie doesn’t play by the rules, lucky or unlucky as the case may be for Maggie Taylor. What transpires is an extremely dangerous op, where there are no winners. If Brodie and Taylor thought Mercer would be easy to find, they were wrong.

I had extremely high hopes for this novel and unfortunately “The Deserter” didn’t cut it. I can’t say if that’s because this novel was written more by Alex DeMille v. Nelson DeMille or if this is just an outlier, that said I will continue to hope that Nelson DeMille’s next novel will bring back the sarcasm and dry humor I have come to expect from one of my favorite authors.

As mentioned above, this was a buddy read with Kaceey. Thanks for reading this one with me Kaceey! I am so glad we had each other through this one!

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on Goodreads and NetGalley on 11.2.19.

Captain Kyle Mercer deserts his unit in Afghanistan. He's captured and tortured by the Taliban. Then he escapes, sending a video of him with dead captors to U.S. Government. Then he is sighted in Venezuela. The Army sends 2 CID investigators to capture him and bring him back for court martial. Scott Brodie has a reputation for breaking the rules and succeeding in his assignments. He is paired with a new partner, Maggie Taylor. But there is more to Kyle's desertion and Scott and Maggie are almost killed numerous times. Venezuela is vividly portrayed as a failed lawless state.
This is a moderately long book at 449 pages, but it moves along at a brisk pace as Scott and Maggie follow clues to Kyle's whereabouts and why he deserted. This is a co-author book with Nelson and son Alex.
Thanks to the authors and Simon&Schuster for sending me this book through NetGalley. I read this book in 2 days.
One quote: "Venezuela wasn't yet a police state like Cuba, or a chaotic failed state like Somalia. But it was a country on the edge, economically desperate, with weak and corrupt institutions and a government openly hostile to American interests."
Thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.

A new collaboration between Nelson and Alex DeMille begins with a bang. Kyle Mercer escaped and if not for the NetGalley description, the reader might think Mercer the hero; but then enters Scott Brodie and his new partner, Maggie Taylor and we begin a methodical recitation of their mission to locate Mercer. This is a classic DeMille book filled with suspense and action that moved swiftly keeping the reader enthralled for the first half of the book. Then long descriptions bogged the story down before a roller coaster ending.

Learning the hardships facing Venezuela put a face on the news stories we hear about daily, and I thank the authors for this insight. I always leave Nelson DeMille's books satisfied both with the plot and location details previously unknown to me.

The Deserter from father/son duo Nelson/Alex DeMille is definitely a page turner. The suspense, and action levels were fairly consistent throughout, and I appreciated that the authors kept the plotline within the realm of reality. At times I found the humor rather sophomoric and crass, but it didnt really take me out of the story. The main characters, hero and heroine, Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor, have the earmarks of series regulars. I do think The Deserter felt a little unbalanced at times, and I wondered if it suffered a bit from being a series launch, with all the scene setting and background sharing series entail. I am hoping to see the characters get a little more complex in succeeding books, and the level of sarcasm and internal dialogue tone down a bit.
3.5
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

This was an interesting read. It had quite a bit of development (to the point that I sometimes wished it would just move on, already) and then it would explode into action. I had an issue, though, with the fact that most of the action was instigated by some really, really poor choices by the lead character putting himself and his subordinates in danger. This is certainly not my world, but I don't believe this guy would remain in his position for very long if he consistently made the irresponsible choices he makes in the name of completing the mission. I'm not sure, by the end, that he really learned any lessons, either. I have to think this is going to be a series and I might give the next installment a try, but if the next one has a similar arc then I don't think I'd continue with it.

One the things that did really affect me was the descriptions of the circumstances in Venezuela. With the reports we see in the US about hyperinflation and breakdown of order there, it's easy to understand at a superficial level the kind lives their citizens might be experiencing. The descriptions here really put a face to it and really paints the evils that are propagated. I'm not sure how accurate the book is on this topic, but if the situation there is half as bad and the authors make it out to be (and I do believe it), it's really devastating and should raise a call to action for humanitarian reasons.