Three years after the thrilling finale of Threat Axis, Don Riley is now Deputy Director of Operations at the CIA. Harrison Kohl is the acting director of the Emerging Threats Group now, Don Riley’s old position. Harrison’s close friend Tim has gone missing in Uzbekistan and no one knows why.

Meanwhile, China’s Belt and Road Initiative continues as a part of a thirty-year plan to build infrastructure reconnecting Asia and Europe together. Building airports, roads, and railways, is the wave of the future in this region. This project would bind together Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan in Central Asia. These four regions are sandwiched between Russia, Iran, and China and have distinct cultures and histories.

China’s General Gao Yichen, whose career has been on a meteoric rise since the invasion of Taiwan earlier in the “Command and Control” series, has now been chosen to spearhead part of the Belt and Road initiative in Tajikistan. His pride in this role in helping the People’s Liberation Army is apparent but is he taking on an impossible task with too few resources to accomplish it?

In Russia, they are on the verge of another election and President Sokolov’s presidency is threatened by the lack of a mutually beneficial treaty in Central Asia. He’s trying to expand democracy after the calamitous events of the last couple of novels in the series and it’s getting out of control there.

In America, President Serrano is nearing the end of his second presidency and the election will determine who his successor is. But the events in Central Asia might impact the outcome of that. Another international conflict after a string of them over the past eight years, what will the electorate think?

When a new terrorist organization appears, the Seljuk Islamic Front (SIF), steps up attacks on key parts of Central Asia, Riley is tasked with finding a low-key resolution with a minimum of resources and maximum impact.

All these story threads play out across the novel as the situation escalates, the SIF makes bolder moves and the United States thinks it has a solution to the problem at hand. But it all comes together in a brilliantly executed and intense finale where hidden agendas are revealed, secrets are exposed and what we thought was true has multiple layers to it that rocked me to my core.

The multifaceted plot pulls at all these threads, placing me in the different halls of power, in China, Russia, and America. The big, high-stakes decisions they must make in the face of these international crises are staggering and could come back to haunt them if mishandled.

While this novel is not as combat-oriented as previous ones, it instead magnificently turns up the tension over the course of this novel. There is plenty of intrigue and mystery here with intermittent acts of violence. Who is the secret power behind the SIF and why are they becoming increasingly violent in their attacks?

Punctuating the violence are all the precipitating events, stringing together disparate plot threads tighter until they form a frightening cohesive picture. There are mysteries within mysteries here and while Don and the CIA try to parse out who is responsible for what, enemies are lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike when it is time.

Could it be India who is behind the SIF? Why is China investing so much time and money into the Belt and Road Initiative? Rising from the ashes of personal tragedy is Tamur Ganiev, an Uzbek doctor who becomes the voice of unity and peace for these disenfranchised countries of Central Asia. How is he involved in this situation?

Assassinations, drone strikes, political power moves, and more are all hallmarks of this series. This particular plot kept me reading, mesmerized by the masterwork of intrigue created here. It all comes down to a terrific gathering of all these disparate plot threads to form one cohesive picture and when I saw it, I uttered a gasp as everything fell into place, behind-the-scenes machinations became clear, and hidden motives were laid bare by all nations.

Don Riley’s role in these affairs has increased over the course of this series. He has his hands full as usual, being hamstrung by the politics of the current President while also trying to make a difference. Currently, as a trusted advisor to President Serrano as a Deputy Director, he does his best to do crisis management as only he can: with boots on the ground and as solid an intelligence picture as he can gather. He does his best with the marching orders the President has given him but is the President making the correct play here?

As Harrison explores the disappearance of his friend, what he discovers could have severe ramifications for this part of Central Asia. Harrison has been a minor character since the beginning of the Command and Control series and he’s been getting a larger spotlight ever since. This is his biggest role to date.

He also has the most emotional character arc as he is trying to find his friend while also pursuing justice for his friend’s family, whom he is close to. Thinking about how to help them, he does the best he can, stopping at nothing to achieve his objective, no matter how much it costs him. While multiple nations are making high-stakes maneuvers, Harrison’s efforts here really humanize the mystery of his friend’s disappearance and put an intensely personal face on the cost of grief.

These characters demonstrate dedication to their country, to themselves, to their teams, and their friends, giving their all to illuminate these mysteries and problem-solve the issues being presented. It demonstrates the best humanity has to offer in the armed forces and shows their utmost professionalism in getting the job done.

While these characters bring the story home, I also want to highlight the detail and care given to the four Central Asian countries: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Each culture paints a distinct picture of pride in their homeland and their history of being ruled by other, larger nations.

I have a more thorough understanding of these countries now, as it was clearly illustrated and explained without slowing down the narrative. In that way, these different cultures form singular characters in their own way and are as important to this novel as the individual characters mentioned previously. It has an important impact on the novel's plot but still takes the time to help me have a deeper understanding of them as well.

This series and these authors have always been terrific at reading potential flashpoints in the world and crafting real-world scenarios in their fiction where it all comes to fruition. Sometimes, they come off as soothsayers given the way events in the real world unfold. Here, what they envision is frighteningly plausible and completely gripping, once again.

Having read the previous four novels in the Command and Control series, as well as the other four novels written by these two authors before that, the authors continue to top themselves with each novel while also switching things up. They know how to craft a fast and nimble thriller filled with intrigue, plot twists, nail-biting tension, and intense combat sequences.

While this novel tells a complete story, it resolves some of the longer plot and character arcs of previous novels. But it also sets the stage with several dangling plot threads and situations that demand resolution in the sixth and final novel of the Command and Control series “Proxy War.” After reading these terrific novels, I wait with bated breath to see how that story unfolds as they resolve six books worth of ongoing stories on the large canvas they have established.

Harrison Kohl is the DDO at the CIA when he hears from the wife of an old friend. His friend who was once an agent has gone missing in Central Asia and no one has any idea where he is or if he is in trouble. Harrison puts out feelers to everyone he knows in the Central Asian 'Stans, but no one has heard or seen his friend. Thus begins an adventure Harrison never expected to be involved in.

The government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is about to open a major portion of its' "Belt and Road Initiative" that will link all of the Central Asian nations to China and thru Iran and Turkey to Moskow and Western Europe. But one man is causing a problem they didn't expect. He wants to merge the four "Stans together in a super state which will be able to stand up to the PRC. The PRC has been using the "Belt" to force the countries it goes thru to control them economically and politically.

Somehow his friend had gotten himself invovled with the group that is fighting against the PRC encroachment. Harrison has to decide how much the US and CIA need to get involved is supporting the anti-PRC goup and to find out what happened to his friend.

This is my first exposure to these authors and it definitely did not disappoint! The authors have provided us with a set of well-developed characters and a plausible yet complex storyline; as a result, you have yourself a cracking international thriller. The main characters are portrayed as realistic and human, painted on the page with emotions, flaws, and their own convoluted histories. It is a fast-paced read that is powered by non-stop action and a taut, emotional narrative. The many twists and turns in the story make it a real page turner that makes it hard to put the book down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn River Publishing who provided me with a copy of this book. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

Military thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat as it unravels amid nonstop action.
Book 5 of the Command Control series sees, Don Riley, the CIA Deputy Director of Operations being put in charge of finding out who is
behind the series of mishaps and possible permanent disruption of the 1000 mile rail and road construction project linking Tehran and
China. He has an operative and friend in Asia already who is looking for someone who disappeared from a small private airstrip several weeks ago & tasks him with the new project, allowing him to keep on with his own personal search.
The action rivets up with assassinations, bombings and mayhem that keeps your eyes on the story.
Good strong characters and a story that manages to traverse two intersecting plot lines without the usual back and forth and confusing side stories.
If you like military stories, thrilling plot twists and great characters, this one's for you.

I haven’t read any of the previous books in this series but after reading f this one, I am going to have to. I enjoyed the pace and plot of this book. The twists at the end were ones I didn’t predict and really threw me for a loop. I only wish the book didn’t junk around so much from one character to another as there were some parts that felt unnecessary and that attention could’ve been paid to the furtherance of the main plot. Overall, this was a fun read and I’d highly recommend it.

Review: I just could not get into this. Continuity errors at the onset in the hangar began my lateral shift away from this novel.

So you are waiting for a plane to land, go out to meet it and someone is already in the hangar you were just in, meeting THE top chinese spy director from the just landed plane? And then, against your better judgement, you sneak around to observe and record the person that was in the hangar you were just in whom you seem to recognize, only to trip on a plot device and get thrown from a jet. Yeah. Right.

Meanwhile we are supposed to sniff and cry because he had two kids and a wife that they went into great depth about. Only to kill him off. Fug this book.

Rating: DNF

"Covert Action," the latest installment in the "Command and Control" series of thrillers from David Brun and J.R. Olsen published by Severn River Publishing (who provided me with the ARC I am reviewing) will not disappoint. For those of you unfamiliar with this series, this book is Volume 5 and is every bit as well written and thought provoking as its predecessors. This particular book focuses on the four "Stans" which were formerly provinces in the Soviet Union (inherited as conquests of Imperial Russia) and looks closely at the newly evolving world order and the struggle for power and influence between the West, China (in this book just coming off a defeat in Taiwan) and the Russian Federation (again, just coming off of a defeat in its Ukrainian incursion). If you know little about these earlier developments detailed in the earlier volumes of the "Command and Control" series, they are well worth the read (I have read all of them). The action here is somewhat less kinetic and tactical in nature and much more geopolitical and grand strategy, what our ancestors called "The Great Game." That means the read is a bit slower than the intensely tactical struggles relayed in some of the earlier volumes, but the payoff is a deeper understanding of some of the challenges facing the world we live in as nascent nationalism and religious differences clash with the new imperialism of China and the desire of Russia to hold on to what is left of the Soviet Empire while dealing with a United States torn between internal political divisions and a continuing desire to balance those tensions with external threats. Obviously, while there is no shortage of espionage and covert action in this book, what it makes clear are the stakes behind "Covert Action" and the ways in which it can backfire on those who believe they are exercising control through it. I was not disappointed with the read, although it took some time, but I do feel as though I am somewhat better versed in some complex issues than I was before reading the book. I therefore recommend it to those of you who don't mind a read which stretches your understanding and enriches your appreciation of the challenges confronting all of the would be players in "The Great Game."

It took a while to develop, but what a story with a gut-punch revelation. So glad I have never had a passion for politics and having to know how best to determine future events! I received an ARC from NetGalley, and the opinions expressed are my own.