DNF @ 25%

Another really fascinating premise that fizzled out for me as time went on. I couldn't get myself interested again. I was given a free NetGalley review copy, and when I couldn't get through that I tried an audiobook from the library, but it wasn't working for me. There was just something missing — an authenticity, maybe. It was wild without being fantastical — missing an element of fun and believability, like the author didn't have his feet planted while writing. I would give him another shot, though, for sure. Just not this book.

A simple heist from over complicated characters gets messy when the owner of the heist in progress interrupts them. When the two main characters flea with the loots the so e how get involved in a conspiracy to stop a foreign enemy. A little imagination will be required to get through this large tale.

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @eccobooks for sending me an early copy of Take No Names.

I had a hard time with this one. The premise seemed really good and the synopsis really hooked me. I loved the storyline and the beginning went by pretty fast. Honestly, it lost me when it turned political. I think it was trying to do too much. It kind of surprised me how quickly things changed course. TL, DR: The beginning was great but then the ending ruined it for me.

Victor Li is a man without a past. To his new employer, Mark, he’s just an anonymous hired hand to help with the dirty work. Together, they break into storage units that contain the possessions of the recently deported, pocketing whatever is worth selling. Only Victor and his sister, Jules, know that he’s a wanted man. Amid the backpacks and suitcases, Victor makes the find of a lifetime: a gem rare and valuable enough to change his fortunes in an instant. But selling it on the sly? Nearly impossible. Thankfully, its former owner, a woman named Song Fei, also left a book of cryptic notes—including the name of a gemstone dealer in Mexico City. When Victor and Mark cross the southern border, they quickly realize that this gem is wrapped up in a much larger scheme than they imagined. In Mexico City, shadowy international interests are jockeying for power, and they may need someone with Victor’s talents—the same ones that got him in trouble in the first place. On the heels of his knockout debut Beijing Payback, Daniel Nieh delivers Take No Names, a white-knuckled and whip-smart thriller that races to an electrifying finish.

Take No Names, Daniel Nieh,

I really enjoyed this fast paced thriller that starts with Victor on the run and ends with international war games. The characters are interesting and distinctive, and I don’t think the author wants us to like any of them. I did! They’re real humans and I especially liked the tortured sibling relationship. It’s nice to have a break from the usual romance as a subplot. I loved all the linguistic intrigue and appreciated the lessons learned. The twists and turns and the political corruption kept me reading obsessively to the end. The ending is wonderful, and I expect book three soon! This is an author who can write action and I can see the movie in my head, especially the helicopter scenes.
When I realized this author had written a prequel to this book, I almost stopped to go back and read it. The main issue I had with this book was how much I wasn’t really understanding based on the references to why Victor was on the run. Sun seemed like a half-baked character based on what I knew from this book, and I couldn’t really understand his motivations or relationship with Jules. I persisted because I was intrigued and wanted to see how this story ended but I would recommend a reading of Beijing Payback: A Novel. I plan to do so now but the story is a bit ruined for me.
Thanks to Net Galley and Ecco for the advance read. I might come back and read again after Beijing Payback.

I enjoyed the plot of this book along with the characters who were for the most part unlikeable but for me that added to the intrigue of the whole story. It was fast paced and interesting but the ending was a bit too open for me. I prefer things tied up completely

My thanks to both Netgalley and the publisher Ecco for an advanced copy of this new thriller in the noir tradition.

The genre of noir has gone through a lot of changes since the days of Black Mask and other pulp magazines and Men's mags. The stories are a lot more inclusive, not just white males doing bad things that go wrong, the stories feature different genders, different genders, even cyberpunk. Also the plots have become larger, and grander in scope not confined to a dark gritty city, but include a dark gritty world. What has not changed is the basic idea of the noir; if the lead character just stopped trying to avoid one problem, than all the other problems wouldn't happen, and nine times out of ten there might be a lived happily ever after ending, not the usual The END a reader or film noir watcher might see. Victor Li, the main character in Take No Names, authored by Daniel Nieh, avoids one problem by digging a hole with both hands and feet making enemies in three countries, and maybe more.

Victor Li is fleeing his past, working as a dishwasher in Seattle without legal id, or a future. A workout buddy offers him a job in his security firm, that is barely breaking even, but has its benefits. One of these is allows the two to break into storage units containing the property of people recently deported, which they rifle for cash and profit. Inside one unit Victor finds a gemstone that could make their fortune, but to sell it means a trip to Mexico. So they set off finding brand new troubles, new enemies and fresh new consequences for Victor and his cohort.

The story is good with characters that are very distinctive and different. No one comes out well in this book, not the company men, our two leads nor any of the people they meet on the way. This is the second book about the exploits of Victor, and his past was explained well, with just enough mystery to keep things moving, The flashbacks and very open ending for the story might bother some readers, but to me it was very noir and fed into the story well. Also the way that language was processed by Victor who is multilingual, I thought was novel, and something you don't see much in these kind of books.

I enjoyed the story quite a bit, and the ending like I said was a little not as tied up in a bow as some readers might like, but I thought it worked well. Recommended for fans of Jim Thompson or some of the darker Lawrence Bloch novels. I look forward to more books by Daniel Nieh.

Victor Li is a man hiding from his past, working odd jobs and robbing the items left behind by recently deported immigrants when he finds a gem so rare, it will change his life forever. Traveling from Seattle to Mexico to sell the gem, Victor finds himself wrapped up in events much larger than himself as he comes to terms with his past. I love how the author set the story within real current events and has included current global politics as part of the plot. It makes this a strong story. This suspenseful thriller will keep you reading until the very last page.

Wow! this book from start to finish was something else. I really love Victor Li character. If you're looking for an exciting book that will be impossible to put down make sure to get a copy of Take No Names when it comes out July 5th, 2022. Thank you NetGalley and Ecco for this advanced copy.

I really enjoyed Beijing Payback, the prequel to this one, although it was more of a straightforward revenge/action novel. This one shifts gears, shifting from a crime novel to an espionage one (or an espionage-adjacent one) about halfway through, but that helps make it stronger.

Following the events of the last book, Victor is now hiding in the Pacific Northwest, breaking into lockers of goods confiscated by the INS with his boss, Mark. It’s a lucrative gig, but things go south when the corrupt owner of the yard catches on, and while they escape, they know they need to leave town. Fortunately, Victor found a hidden painite gem (one of the rarest in the world) as well as clues about it that lead the two to run to Mexico.

Once in Mexico, they get caught up in a plot involving a Chinese company building a railroad, and the political tensions created by both China and the US manipulating our southern neighbor pull them (as well as a few other characters from the first novel) into a heist that, like all good heists, goes horribly awry.

Nieh writes with more confidence in his second novel, delivering a story that’s fast-paced, political. Victor’s a great protagonist, note least because while he’s often smart and competent, he’s rarely the smartest in the room, making his POV the ideal one to obscure the motivations of other characters. The action is fantastic, but it’s the character work that really drives the book forward.

Nieh leaves the novel open-ended, which works well, but may frustrate the sort of reader who tends to populate Goodreads.

Unfortunately, I am unable to read and review this title because of formatting. I will be looking forward to reading after publication.