I had received a copy of the novel, Cobalt by Chris Bauer, from the author, his publishing company (Severn River Publishing) and the fine folks at NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This is the first book that I have read that was authored by Chris Bauer (I had previously been granted an ARC when the Chris Fend series was written by Andrew Watts) so I went into this read with some pre-conceptions). I had received an ARC with great expectations from the previous Max Fend novels. This is a great thriller on its own, but the tie to the original was tenuous.

The premise behind this book is that with the increasing popularity (or demand) for electric vehicles (or hybrids), there is a resulting increase in batteries that are powered by rare earth minerals such as cobalt. According to a study from the prestigious Brooking's Institution, China presently produces some 60% of the world's rare earth elements and processes 85% of them. This dominance has nothing to do however with a geological accident that has placed the bulk of rare earth deposits in Chinese territory. The mineral cobalt (Co), that shares its name with the title of the book, is also the essential ingredient in almost every form of storage battery, principally rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, but also nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and nickel-cadmium (NiCd).

This novel follows the return of the protagonist, Max Fend, and his girlfriend (Renee LeFrancois) as his company (Fend Aerospace) opens the story working on rebuilding airports and other infrastructure projects. The story than progresses as his company begins searching for deposits of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo - one of the five poorest nations in the world - in an attempt to reduce the economic and logistical dependency of the United States on China for this rare earth mineral. This project continues as other searches get started for “volcanogenic” cobalt, disgorged from below the Earth’s surface by lava flows in Hawaii and also the site of large meteorite crater in Greenland, and finally a discovery in a small Pennsylvania town in the Pocono mountains.

Our protagonist and his company face a variety of antagonists represented by China - their main competitor in the search for this rare earth metal - , Russia (represented by the appearance of a Russian sub in the icy waters surrounding Greenland), and various international agent provocateurs who play bit roles in an attempt to prevent the American find in Pennsylvania.

On a scale of five stars, I would easily give this novel a solid four stars as this story provides a well organized plot that has a few twists albeit with some level of predictability. COBALT is the first entry in a new series that kicks off with a definite bang. Political intrigue, economic chaos, gun battles, creative assassination attempts, and a lot more will keep you turning the pages of this terrific thriller.

As with most of my literary ramblings, these are my five cents worth.

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
Cobalt by Chris Bauer
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 329 / Genre: Thriller

When I read the summary for this book, my eyes caught on words like billionaire Max Fend, hacker girlfriend, FBI and CIA, lithium-ion batteries, tech world scrambling for control. So, I thought this was a tech thriller. Instead, it was about mining cobalt, which is the precious metal used in those lithium-ion batteries. Not quite as sexy. But, somehow Chris Bauer managed to make mining for cobalt exciting! Max Fend ends up working closely with the FBI and CIA in a race to discover new sources of cobalt in the Congo, Greenland, and rural Pennsylvania with a ruthless gang of Chinese and Russians determined to thwart their plans. All in all an interesting and exciting read!

Cobalt is out today and available for free with #KindleUnlimited.

Thank you @NetGalley, @SevernRiverPublishing, and @CNTBauer1 for the advanced copy of this book.

The series continues in an excellent tale. International intrigue and corporate interests explode with a small town’s discovery of an important resource. But with Max working on the case, the story stays interesting.