Another Andrew Mayne book that hits it out of the park. I can’t get enough of his writing and he knows how to write a spy thriller/adventure novel to perfection. He has become a must read for me and I know that each time I pick up one of his books I am in for a thrilling ride.
This was a great book and I look forward to more from the duo of Trasker and Connor.

Theo Cray has always been my favorite Andrew Mayne character, but Brad Trasker is a close second. Well, maybe his mother is second and Brad third, but it’s close. He is unfailingly human and his mother is an interesting onion to peel.

A captivating thriller that thrusts retired spy Trasker into the middle of a deadly conspiracy. The intense plotting, with just-in-time tangents, added to cold-blooded murder, keep readers on edge.

Unexpected twists, gasps, and laughter make this a must-read for fans of espionage and suspense.

I love Andrew Mayne's 'Underwater Investigations' series. I liked his 'Jessica Blackwood' series. And I've yet to get to the 'Theo Cray' series. Instead of jumping into that one, I tried this one on since it's only a single book. Sadly, it may stay as a single book for me as I did not connect to it like the others. Per his biography, Mayne now works in the field of AI. This book reads like it was written by AI. Everything feels quite lifeless. I get the main character is supposed to be older and been around the block for a bit, but this book lacks any kind of youthful energy the others had. So many times just kind of felt 'been there, read that' before. Even the little quirks that set it apart, like the memory palace scenes, felt a little tired. Factor in a mystery that never really felt all that important, this was just a big miss for me. I might read the second book in the series if it's short enough because of the goodwill Mayne has built with me thus far. Hopefully, it's better than this one.

Night Owl by Andrew Mayne
Trasker #1

Fast-paced, action-packed, thrill-ride that grabbed my attention immediately and kept it till I read the last page.

What I liked:
* Adam Trasker: retired counterintelligence agent, lost his son just as he hoped to spend more time with him, divorced, creates memory palaces to help him retain information, past his prime but still capable, takes on a job with Kylie Connor and can be rather ruthless
* Kylie Connor: aviation inventor and entrepreneur, owner of Wind Aviation, brilliant, her father died when she was young, cares about her employees, a bit ruthless
* Adam’s mother: in the spy game for decades, taught Adam much, intriguing, would like to know more about her
* The plot, pacing, settings, and writing
* The way Trasker figured out who was behind the sabotage
* That I cared about the outcome
* It was easy to dislike the bad guys and want to see them dealt with
* That there will be another book in the series

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* Thinking about the damage countries and individuals can do for questionable motives or monehy

Did I like this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

Andrew Mayne is a delightfully entertaining author, and Night Owl will make you BECOME a night owl when you can't put down this addictive book!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

Andrew Mayne is a delightfully entertaining author, and Night Owl will, well make you BECOME a night owl as it is hard to stop reading this addictive book.

One of my favorite things in this thriller is the inclusion of counterintelligence tricks that retired operative, Brad Trasker, the main character, a retired operative employs.
The inclusion of "imagination rooms" in this novel (associating memories, turning them into characters which you then associate with fictional novels to trigger memory was bloody genius,!

Andrew Mayne is a masterful genius of an author, he steadily improves with each book because he sets his own standard sky-high)excellence sky-high and Night Owl is arguably Mayne's best novel yet.

I recommend Night Owl for fans of:literary fiction, mysteries, and spy novels. Jack Reacher fans will especially delight when Trasker rides into town hoping to save the day!

Mayne fans (and those reading him for the first time) will delight in the addictively explosive Night Owl.

This wonderful entry into this new Brad Trasker series will leave readers begging for MORE!

A fast-paced thriller with an interesting plot. There is a lot going on in this story, atypical of an espionage thriller where no one can be trusted and action packed.

ARC was provided by NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review.

I have read most of the author's books but I didn't think I would like this one; I was wrong. It took me a little while to get into but it picked up and moved like lightning. It is about a young aeronautical company that is head by a young woman, Kylie Connor, who has developed a plane that can run on hydrogen gas safely, efficiently and economically feasible. The company seems to be experiencing some gremlins: one of her primary investors is killed in a car accident and one of the main engineers disappears. She asks Brad Trasker, a retired counterintelligence agent, to attend the first test flight of the plane. The plane blows up , nearly killing Kylie in the blast. She hires Trasker to help her find out what is going on.
This is a fun thriller as the reader follows Trasker on the dangerous path of discovery.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

There was so much I liked about this book. Trasker, an aging retired spy who may not be up to the game he is getting sucked back into. A brilliant young woman who dominates her field, owns her own company, is about to own the latest and most brilliant technology and measures up to each and every male that she encounters. Murder, things blowing up, mayhem, bullets flying, bodies falling, but it just wasn’t enough - almost but not quite. We all have different ways of working out problems but mentally placing strange little miniatures on a time traveller’s writing desk was just a little too abstract and I never could connect those dots. And there were so many initial agencies it’s was hard to keep track of who was tracking who, and could the FBI really screw up so badly?!

The mental gymnastics were impressive but overdone when basically it all comes down to knowing when you should trust someone. But is seems as if there is no one that you can trust in this story and it is wearying. The game has changed, the superpowers aren’t the major player, the powerful are businessmen with all the money who can hire all the killers to procure anything and everything. But what is the endgame? I was never completely sure and what’s worse neither was Trasker and that was a problem. Chaos reigns supreme. And it looks as if he has signed on for another installment, so maybe it will all become clear and work out next time. From the other reviews I read it seems as if Trasker’s mother gets the high marks and we are all looking for an encore performance.

Many thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for a copy.

My first book by this author and it turned out to be a spy thriller - my kind of book. The main character is Brad Trasker who has had a career in espionage but is now retired. However events occur which draw him back into the business.

This was a fast paced story with so many tricks and turns that I really had to concentrate to keep up. Trasker was able to call in favors and use his extensive knowledge from the past and this ultimately saves his own life. I particularly enjoyed the character of Trasker's mother and I hope she plays good sized roles in future books.

Of course it was all unbelievable and over the top but all the best books in this genre are! I will be looking out for more by this author.

Night Owl by Andrew Mayne Is the first book in a new series called Trasker and a new author to me and I really enjoyed the way the author wrote. Brad Trasker is retired, disillusioned, and dealing with a tragic loss. With his past is behind him, well until he attends the launch of a next-generation aircraft. This is a new project is an innovative aerospace when the CEO Kylie Connor explodes on the tarmac, which nearly killing her in the process. Brad Trasker is pulled back into the line of fire.

Everything changes so quickly and the mystery of the sabotage quickly deepens. With all Kylie’s data wiped from the server and one of her engineers has disappeared. Then, a seed investor has died in a suspicious car accident, which is a cold-blooded murder raises the stakes even higher.

This book is full of twists and turns throughout which made it a good page turner. However, sometimes I got lost and confused about the storyline. I did enjoy it but I had to write notes about it so I didn't forget what was going on! Hence why I said its full of twists and turns - I got lost! lol.

I do recommend this book but it does take a bit to get into and work out.

Big thank you to NetGalley, Andrew Mayne, and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with ARC.

Night Owl is the first book in a new series titled Trasker. I am a big fan of Andrew Mayne and was very grateful to be given the opportunity to read the ARC. This is a fantastic, riveting action packed book.

Brad Trasker is a retired spy dealing with the loss of his son, Jason. When he goes to retrieve his son's vehicle, he gets a flat tire and meet Kylie Conner who stops to help. Later he gets an invite form Kylie to attend the launch of her new aircraft. An act of sabotage pulls Trasker out of retirement and he begins to work with Kylie to discover who is responsible.

This is an intense story that takes the reader along for a thrilling ride that does not let the reader down. I highly recommend this story and will be waiting for the next installment in the series.

I knew pretty much right away that this was going to be a thriller I was not likely going to solve before the protagonist does so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. I loved Trasker’s “memory palace” way of remembering details for later. I also loved his mini flashbacks of his past experiences on the job. I am looking forward to the next book in this new series!

First off, thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Andrew Mayne is not a new author to me. I’ve read all 5 of his Underwater Investigation Unit series and all 3 of his Jessica Blackwood series. I wouldn’t call either of those series great, but they were fast paced and well developed enough to hold my interest. I’m actively looking forward to book 6 of the UIU series, should there be one.

This book, on the other hand, was not good. The plot was far-fetched, which would be fine considering it’s a spy novel and they’re not exactly supposed to be based in reality, but it was also insanely boring. It wasn’t worth keeping up with the twists and turns because there was nothing about the plot or characters to invest any energy into. There was absolutely zero character development beyond Trasker being a super brilliant yet misunderstood spy who could kill people easily but won’t because he’s misunderstood. Kylie was written in a way that makes it clear a man was writing the character.

But the nail in the coffin was the wise guy inner monologue the entire book was written in. Every single page was written with Trasker telling the audience how brilliant he was and how many steps ahead he was and blah blah blah. It seriously sounded like Trasker was filling a diary with all his big wins, embellishing bits and pieces to make himself feel more relevant in a world he is out-aging. It was painful to read and had literally no pay off considering I called the big bad villain in the very first chapter.

This book was not worth finishing. If you’re considering to DNF it, by all means please do. It doesn’t get any better as you go.

While the intriguing title, striking cover, and thrilling premise pulled me in enough to begin the story, I’m not the biggest fan of first person point of view, which sprang up after the prologue. Like another reader said, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was reading.

Based on what I’ve read, this story is great for fans of: serial killers, crime fiction, conspiracy theories, series.

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Thomas and Mercer, and was not required to give a positive review.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are entirely my own,

The book follows Brad who is a retired intelligence officer who is dealing with grief as a retired officer. He is dealing with retirement when he attends an aircraft launch . Nothing pulls a man from retirement than an explosion . The explosion opens a case of sabotage, a disappearance and a suspicious death and thus Brad is pulled into action. Fast paced, thrilling, imaginative and a page turner this is ideal for a lazy day read.

A new series by Andrew Mayne introducing FBI agent Brad Trasker. Trasker is tasked to track down contract killers.

Trasker meets Kylie Connor, and is invited to a meeting for an experimental aircraft. But, then the plane explodes. Trasker is investigating the explosion.

The short chapters made this one easier to read

This book proves once again that the author's signature style of crafting high-tech thrillers with a touch of the unexpected is a winning formula.

Brad Trasker, a retired counterintelligence agent, finds himself inadvertently drawn into the investigation of the destruction of a cutting-edge military aircraft. What initially appears as a tragic accident and technological glitch may, in fact, be part of a far more complex plot. Trasker must leverage his wealth of knowledge and experience to unravel the layers of deception and uncover a conspiracy, if there is any at all.

One of the aspects I genuinely appreciate about Mayne's books is the central role played by technology and modern research in his stories. This holds true in this book and is something I found particularly engaging. The author consistently manages to surprise me with unexpected twists while seamlessly weaving everything into a cohesive whole, even when tiptoeing on the edges of science fiction. Yet, this is precisely what I expect from Mayne, and I'm always satisfied when he delivers.

Mayne is also a guarantee of fast-paced action and numerous plot twists. If, like me, you enjoy stories that move swiftly, you won't be disappointed here. The pacing is rapid, but not to the point of confusion or losing track of the storyline. Mayne never wastes time on overly lengthy introductions, yet we still learn everything we need to know about the main characters and the situations they find themselves in.

Also, I appreciate that Mayne's protagonists make intelligent decisions consistent with their characters. Brad Trasker, in particular, emerges as a complex character whose layers are a pleasure to unravel. His journey in this book is intriguing, and I look forward to discovering more about him in the next books in this series. Mayne has a knack for keeping his readers engaged and, as evident from this book, will likely continue to surprise us with unexpected twists and turns.

This book really provided excellent entertainment. I am intrigued by these characters and excited about the potential directions the author may take them in future additions of the series. If you're a fan of intelligent thrillers with a technological edge, this book is worth adding to your reading list.

I have enjoyed the books belonging to one of Andrew Mayne's other series Underwater Investigation Unit so far, and I actually thought Night Owl was a sequel for that series back when I first saw it. I guess I should have learned to read the blurb first by now! Since I do enjoy his writing, I was still looking forward to this series despite the fact that spy thrillers can go both ways for me. The blurb sounded particularly enticing, and I fully expected to have a great time with it... But somehow I ended up having mostly mixed thoughts instead. I have to stress that part of the problem most definitely lies with me, because I might just not have been the right target group for this one. Spy thrillers don't always work well for me, and in this case there were multiple elements that prevented me from properly enjoying the story. This ment that it took me a long time to actually finish this story, which is surprising because the pace itself is considerably fast.

Don't get me wrong: I still like the premise and general idea behind this story. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way, and I liked the contrast between the 'old school' spy strategies and the new way of doing things thanks to technological advances. The whole 'fish out of the water' vibe with the main character being a retired spy and not really up to date with the technological advances added a little something extra to the plot, and it made the character seem more relatable. BUT. There were also a lot of things that highly frustrated me about Trasker. I was never able to probably warm up to him, and the constant repetition of his memory palace and how he organizes everything got extremely annoying real fast. I get that the author wants to demostrate the technique, and I did find it interesting at first, but sooner than later I started to resent it every time another reference appeared.

While I did like the general idea behind the premise, I did think that the plot itself was quite over the top and simply not credible at all. This lack of credibility tends to appear in most spy/conspiracy thrillers, but somehow I wasn't as easy to overlook these feelings in Night Owl. This might have been connected to the fact that I wasn't that big of a fan of the main character, which made it harder to fully inmerge myself in the plot or care about what happened to the cast. There were too many convenient finds and near escapes to my liking, and I wasn't really a fan of how everything was wrapped up in the end nor how the identity of the mole was SO obvious from the beginning.

Sometimes books just aren't a right fit, but I'm having a feeling fans of spy thrillers will most likely enjoy Night Owl a lot more than I did. I won't be continuing this series myself, but I'm excited to dive into the next Underwater Investigation Unit book instead.

In Andrew Mayne's page-turning thriller, Night Owl, retired ex-government intelligence specialist Bradley Trasker is pulled back into the world of espionage to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a high-tech aircraft. Mayne's engaging and suspenseful writing keeps readers guessing until the very end. While the story can get a bit convoluted at times, overall, Night Owl is a solid thriller that will appeal to fans of the genre.

Rating: 3/5 stars

So much happening! New series and I for one am hooked. I loved his UWI and Theo and Jessica series. This one is a different background, scenario but still with the Andrew Mayne twists and insights, the tidbits of information that make you wonder is this part pulled from reality and oh so much more. I had to reread several times the scenes where Trasker uses books or scenarios to remember people and situations. To my simple mind I was lost. I was intrigued and sucked up into the whirlwind of Traskers past life, his losses and want to be in on the next book. Kylie was the lightness to in this twisted read and man oh man towards the end there, I thought for sure there was a mistake in calling this book 1. I am sooooo happy to have another Andrew Mayne series that entertains my mind, my emotions and my feelings. Thank you for the arc. I freely volunteer my thoughts and opinions. #NightOwl #Trasker #AndrewMayne #ThomasandMercer #NetGalley