This was quite an exciting book. Once I started reading The Bitter Past, I could not put it down. This is about Sheriff Becker in a Nevada town who had left to join the Army, ended up in intelligence and came home to take over his father’s position as Sheriff. A tortured federal agent was found dead and that is where it starts. Story actually goes back to the 1950’s when a Russian spy was working at a Nevada testing site for the Bomb. It is a very interesting story about the test site, the bomb, and how he is told to steal the bomb so it can be used on the US. You will definitely enjoy this story; in fact, I look forward to reading another story by this author, Bruce Brogos. Thank you NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to find a new author.

In a desert town near Las Vegas, a retired FBI agent is found dead, brutally tortured. Sheriff Porter Beck then gets a visit from another FBI agent offering to help with the investigation, as the murder appears to be connected with possible spying at a nearby nuclear test site. The Bitter Past is a suspenseful and thoroughly entertaining mystery/spy thriller, expertly told in dual timelines alternating from the present to the late 1950’s that will keep you glued to the pages. As the plot unfolds and the timelines merge, the reader is totally engaged with smart, witty dialogue and great characters. Very pleasantly surprised by this one, and definitely looking forward to more in this new series. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos is the first book in the Porter Beck series. This is a thrilling, chilling story. Definitely a page-turner. The characters are well-developed and the storyline flows smoothly. Bruce Borgos is a new-to-me author and I look forward to more stories from him.

This was interesting and unique. The dual timeline was fantastic and added real depth to the story. I enjoyed the historical aspect and the science behind it. The romance part was completely unnecessary to the plot and could have been left out completely. It moved incredibly fast, as to not be believable, and didn't add any value to the story. Overall this was a great first book in a new series and I look forward to more. 3.5 stars.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Publishing for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Who doesn't love a gritty sheriff's tale in the desert of Nevada, Area 51 and russian spies? Sherrif Porter Beck inherited his very large county from his dad, who now suffers from dementia. Beck is investigating the execution of a retired FBI agent living in the middle of the desert with a secret bunker full of files. The former agent was tortured because of this hidden information, which Beck and his team soon discover.

This book is told in alternating timelines between the 1950's and the present day. The past provides the background for the Atom Bomb testing and russian spy that gets hired onto the project. The present is Beck and team racing to prevent the next murder.

The plot, setting and characters were very enjoyable and well done. I am hoping that this will become a new series!

Highly recommend!

Definitely not my typical read but I throughly enjoyed it and was instantly pulled into the story. The flashbacks certainly were so important to the story and I loved the twists and turns that hat made this book unputdownable.

Don't let the bland, cliched title put you off. This is an absolutely terrific book, the best mystery-thriller-cop-spy novel mashup I've read in years, and I'm blown away by it, honestly.

The narrative is complicated and you have to pay attention, but the voice of the rural sheriff who relates the contemporary portions in the first person is so compelling that you'll find that easy to do. The prose is clean and sharp as the proverbial razor. The dialogue is so real you would swear you're hearing it spoken as you read.

It's a wonderful book, truly. Mystery-thrillers don't get any better than this.

What an intriguing premise! This was a fast read and I really liked the two different timelines this story took place in. I was equally invested in both. The action never stops! The desert felt so real, it could have been another character.

A Thoroughly Engrossing Story

Porter Beck has returned to his home town in Nevada after serving in Army Intelligence doing things no one talks about. Now he’s the sheriff, replacing his father who served the town for many years before dementia took his mind. Nothing much ever happens in this town, until it does. A retired FBI agent is dead, tortured beyond belief by someone looking for information.

The story then switches to The Past, a time in the ‘50s when the government was scrambling to perfect a nuclear bomb. A young Russian has been groomed for this mission, fluent in both Russian and English. His job? Infiltrate the nuclear complex and gain information for the Russians.

This story revolves around these two people doing their jobs as best they can. The chapters switch between the present and the past, pulling you into a deep mystery from the past that has surfaced in the present. It was hard to put this book down. The characters are well developed and I found myself empathizing with the sheriff and the monumental task before him.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of The Bitter Past. This is my honest review.

There’s lots of intrigue in this little sleepy town outside of Las Vegas adjacent to the site of nuclear testing in the 40’s.
   The story starts gruesomely with the torture and murder of an old timer from the community. Needless to say, the reason as to why this man was brutalized is the puzzle of the police department, led by Porter Beck. As sheriff and son of the previous sheriff he discovers that the FBI is interested in this murder because the victim may be a Russian spy gone underground.
   The story offers interesting facts about the development of nuclear warfare and the disregard of the health of people in the vicinity when they were tested. Most of the families living there were affected by the radiation: cancer, miscarriages, defects, all were attributed to those tests.
   But now there is a bigger issue: a sleeper spy has been living here all these years and now someone wants him back. The problem is Russia is targeting ALL men of a certain age bracket to torture because they don’t know who it could be 50 years later, either.
   An exciting book that describes an interesting look into the cold War of the 50’s, life in the expanse of the west, the measures the government will takes to do due diligence and the love of a son despite what he discovers about hidden secrets in his own family.
   A definite page turner.

I requested to read and review this book for free from Minotaur Books an Imprint of St. Martin's Publishing Company. This book was fantastic. It had some many twist and turns. You won't want to put this book down. It has mystery, drama, suspense and a little romance. Secrets have a way to come back to us some they haunt or others feel freedom. Spies can be anywhere. Trust is a hard thing when you don't know who to trust. Beck is a by the book rules followers. But life is going to get messy for a while for him and the police department. This book can be read anywhere and should be read by a mature audience.

The Bitter Past deals with the cost of doing the right thing. This entertaining book is set in Nevada's high desert. It has a very interesting story line. It was well thought out and expertly put together. I loved the mystery and suspense. I had no idea who the real Freddie was. It was a very twisty and a wonderful read. I loved this book and I highly recommend it. I was provided an advance reader copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos is a book about Porter Beck. He is second generation sheriff; his father was a sheriff before him and is sliding into dementia.
A retired FBI agent is tortured and killed, and it goes back to the beginning of the nuclear age.
When a current FBI agent shows up to help investigate the murder things start to heat up.
We moved between the present day and 1950s past to find out the mystery. Who is the killer? What are they trying to find out from the past?
I enjoyed the writing and the story. I recommend this book and hope to read more by the author.

I flip flopped on whether to give this book 2 or 3 stars. The story itself was good, which is ultimately why I went with 3 stars, but the writing was infuriating at times. If they had edited out all the cringey, unnecessary sexual innuendos, then this would have been a 3 or 4 star book. Beck feels like nothing but a leering pervert at times during the book. I almost couldn't even believe it when he actually referred to the handle in the car as a "bitch bar". I don't think my eyes could have rolled harder.

**SPOILERS**

As I've already touched on, I found it really annoying that the introduction of Sana turned Beck into a leering, completely unsympathetic, leering pervert. I found it equally annoying that, on the one hand, she was described as being so smart and well-educated, while at the same time being painted as completely naive, inexperienced and sometimes either dumb or careless as far as crime scene analysis. I did not find it to be redeeming when it was later revealed that she is a CIA agent, rather than FBI. I found that to be even worse, because surely, a CIA agent would receive more training than that. This all seemed like a poor, and transparent, excuse to paint Beck as being "superior".

Also, what on earth was going on with the introduction to Brin? Especially in the beginning, I could barely even read about the sexual innuendos between step siblings. Add in the extra layer of cringe with the jealousy between the step sister and the supposed FBI agent? We're to believe that the FBI/CIA agent is genuinely jealous, of a stepsister, after knowing this guy for a week? No. Who is this even written for?

I would have genuinely enjoyed this book if it came off way less like "men writing women", and if all that pointless innuendo was removed. It took away from the story and ultimately made it even hard to want to keep reading at times because it was so ridiculous.

Thanks to Minotaur, St. Martin’s and Netgalley for providing the ARC. I didn’t seek out this book and might have never read it had it not been offered to me. That said, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. A local western lawman, combined with an FBI agent to solve a murder with connections stretching back to the early days of the Cold War. And all the characters are not what they seem. It kept me very engrossed for a few late nights. Recommended for anyone who likes a historical fiction mystery.

The Bitter Past intertwines a current day murder mystery that takes place in the high desert of Nevada with Russian espionage that took place at a nearby nuclear test site in the 1950’s. Sheriff Porter Beck is investigating the torture and killing of a retired FBI agent in his town when a woman, claiming to be an FBI agent, turns up to look into the man’s murder. Beck, who is a former military intelligence officer, feels that something is off about the agent and the entire case for that matter; especially when the clues lead them to Russian espionage at the nuclear test site nearby that took place 70 years ago. Is the killer trying to eliminate the last people who know about the Russian spy? Beck, his team and the FBI agent must work quickly to find out. Borgos has written a very atmospheric and descriptive mystery. The desert and the dangers it holds is as much a character in the novel as the interesting and well-defined people who fill the pages. The story is fast-paced and has several plot twists. Beck is a strong protagonist and I look forward to the possibility of more stories featuring him. I would definitely read them. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur, for providing me an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the sections of the book set in the present, but was not fond of those set in the past. I understand how they were supposed to tie together, but I thought the present-day book was strong enough on its own. The twist at the end was totally unexpected and a very fulfilling one. If the author's next book only takes place in the present, I'll be interested in reading it.

A moving novel based on "doing the right thing".

KGB Lt. Georgiy Dudko is sent to Nevada USA in the 1950s as an undercover spy to gather and report information to Russia on the US nuclear bomb project. As Freddie Meyer he befriends Dr. Ellison and his daughter Kitty. The situations Freddie finds himself put into are one moral dilemma after another.

Present day Sheriff Porter Beck digs into the past to solve the disappearance of a young bride, and sudden deaths of a local elderly men.

Bouncing between 1940s-1950s and present day the story is quite intriguing. How it all comes together is well-done.

This was a really good book, the first in a series and I will be looking for the second. Sheriff Porter Beck is called out to a crime scene, a brutal one at that of a retired FBI agent who appears to have been tortured, then slowly killed. Not long after, Agent Sana shows up and tags along with Porter while he investigates the murder and other oddities that are happening in the area (like a missing young girl that's in a polygamy marriage). We are also taken to The Past which describes a young man who eventually is hired on as a security guard at the Nevada Testing site for nuclear weapons, this young may has an ulterior motive though, one that doesn't come clear until near the end. Porter and Sana become close, she's drop dead gorgeous and he's not hard on the eyes, though they both feel guilty after their one night together, that doesn't stop them from investigating further and uncovering little clues that lead to a big reveal. A very good start for this series and I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Minotaur for the ARC.

After a career in Army Intelligence Porter Beck returned home to the Nevada high desert and became sheriff just like his dad was. When a reclusive retired FBI agent is brutally tortured and murdered and his home ransacked, Porter can’t help but think there’s more to the story. An FBI agent suddenly showing up to help with the investigation seals the deal. He can’t help but wonder if she’s there to help or hinder him from finding the truth. Could it really have something to do with the 1957 secret nuclear testing and Area 51???

Told in the 1950s and the present, The Bitter Past is a unforgettable story that will keep you turning the pages long into the night. Can’t wait for a sequel.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for making this story available to me in exchange for an honest review.