I've really enjoyed Andrew Mayne's Underwater Investigation series, and was looking forward to get my teeth into the Trasker series. I enjoyed the first book which I purchased, then had the pleasure to preview this one in NetGalley.

While I expected Trasker to head off to a new adventure, this book picks up where the last one left off - him being employed as the head of security for Wind Aerospace and its young genius founder. After a security breach allows an unauthorized photo of a top secret project to become public, he pivots to track down a company the founder invested in that seemed to disappear off the map.

If you enjoy storylines with lots of twists and turns, involving numerous players involved in games, manipulations and deceptions, then this book is for you. My feeble brain had a hard time keeping track of how all the pieces were fitting together until the very end, so patience is a virtue for those of us who find ourselves confused at times with all that was going on in this story. Certainly this is not one of these books where the good guys and bad guys are obvious at the outset, so if you're looking for a simple storyline, this book isn't for you.

With that said, if you're smarter than me, you'll appreciate this tale in all it's complexity. I'm hoping the next volume is a little easier to follow for simpletons like me.

Mayne is always a fun read. His thrillers are suspenseful and impossible to put down. I’ve said before how it must be hard to write about super-smart characters when you’re a normal human but, in Mayne’s case, he seems to be just as intelligent as his fictional heroes. Stories about white-collar crime, hackers and spies usually bore me a bit but this one was so entertaining that I was just as hooked as the author’s other series. What starts as a possible leak takes Trasker to Thailand, just looking for someone who might have stolen money from his boss. The more he investigates, the higher the stakes grow until he is put, again, in a life and death situation. I love Trasker, he is very likable, despite having literally killed people in the past. It may not be the most realistic story and one of Trasker’s escapes here jumps the shark a bit, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief enough to just sit down and enjoy the ride. This is the type of novel I love so the retired super-spy gets 5 stars from me.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Thomas & Mercer.

Always a delight, any book by Mayne will make you stay up way past your bedtime. Another good entry into another great series with great characters. Can’t wait for the next one.

The description we are given for Death Stake is intriguing:
Retired intelligence operative Brad Trasker heads security at a remote aerospace facility when there’s a major breach. A photo of their top-secret AI-designed hydrogen engine has surfaced online. Trasker’s investigation into who did it soon leads to a start-up in Bangkok, where its three software developers have disappeared, along with nearly a million dollars in investment money.

Following their tracks, Trasker hits a dead end. The start-up’s HQ is a padlocked crime scene. No one—not the cagey locals, the mobbed-up gangs, or the Royal Thai Police—is keen on answering Trasker’s questions. But their message is clear: get out of Bangkok or die.

Hunted by assassins, Trasker is drawn into the same complex high-tech underworld of cryptocurrency, digital espionage, and betrayal that swallowed up the runaway coders. As the line between ally and enemy blurs, and the stakes become life and death, Trasker must navigate the dangerous intersection of modern intelligence and old-school spy games to survive.
***
The follow-up is mostly interesting but I felt that the description promised a more compelling novel. Sure, I enjoyed it. I love Bangkok settings. I'd be glad to read Mr. Mayne's next novel as well.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

This is an outstanding second book in this series. I love to read smart adventures with greed, murder and the complicated
relationships that exist in the myriad of government agencies involved here. Of course, Brad is looking for money (a lot of money)
stolen in a fascinating process, by very dedicated thieves. He ends up also needing to effect rescue that might not have been
in his best interest. Rebecca is an unlikely partner (whom I like) in trying to help him out of his situation. Overall, the technological
and financial crimes fascinate me. I look forward to another adventure into cybercrimes, and the incredible intricacies described
by Mr. Mayne. His descriptions are just the best! My thanks to Thomas and Mercer via NetGalley for the download of this book
for review purposes.

Andrew Mayne has a way of writing characters that you just fall for. They're imperfect, but complete and total bad @ss. I love how Mayne is able to create a trail of information and we get to be captivated by Brad Trasker putting the pieces together! While some of this story seems far fetched at times, it's fiction and kept me engaged and I couldn't put it down!

I remember reading a reviewer once who said that there are two kinds of thrillers: those written by people who write what they know because they've been there, and those written by people who use Google. This is a third kind of thriller. One written (and edited) by people who are neither.

It's a shame, too, because there's some good writing here. But the factual errors with regard to the setting and the operations on which the narrative is based are just so numerous and egregious that DEATH STAKE quickly reduces itself to laugh-out-loud parody. The place in which much of the novel was set is presumably Bangkok, but the place described in the novel bears more resemblance to Dallas than it does to any actual city in Asia, let alone Bangkok. And don't get me started on the narrative of CIA operations around which the novel is built. Was Google broken when this book was written and edited? Five minutes here and two minutes there invested by either the author or the editor would have easily fixed the most glaring of the inaccuracies, but apparently neither cared enough to bother.

Look, I know it's not strictly necessary for thrillers to be accurate in every detail, but it *is* necessary for them to be credible, and credibility starts with getting the details right. This book gets virtually none of the details right. I think thriller readers are a lot smarter and a lot more demanding than this book gives them credit for.

Bitcoin, whitehat hackers and political intrigues: I am a bit clueless about but this was still a thrilling read. Ultimately the book is about espionage. Brad Trasker is trying to protect his employer from industrial espionage and investments going wrong. The company has a new type of engine in development that is top secret however a photograph was taken from the desert area across from their hangers which leaks the image of it. As Brad investigates how this happened and who is behind it; the plot evolves into a bigger and bigger fiasco. He goes to Thailand to try to find the young men in a computer firm his boss invested in who have seemingly disappeared. In Thailand he finds that some of the young me have been murdered. The plot is full of twist and the characters never know who they can trust or exactly who the good guys or bad guys are. The only hope is that they come through it alive and not in Jail.

Brad Trasker has an impeccable background with counterintelligence, unique memory methods and skills that make mere high IQ people seem substandard. As head of security Brad’s initial goal to trace some missing investment money given to a young startup tech group turns into a much deeper investigation. It’s cutting edge, cutthroat and almost overwhelmed me. Tracing the money leads to tracking the tech group’s footsteps, taking Brad from the Mojave to Bangkok, Thailand. I loved the intensity, the urgency, the tension of the plot. A lot of backtracking into Brad’s previous missions, his very unique childhood training, what brought him to be who and where he is now. While it was enlightening, there were times it sidetracked me so much I forgot where I was in the current mission. It was great for developing his character but didn’t always hold my attention. The tech influencers, crypto, blockchains, coding was rather mind-blowing futuristic jumbo to me. It’s very current and relevant but I had a hard time following this complex theme. I learned new concepts in a technology world that’s exploding with lightning speed. Many readers are going to appreciate the pacing and onslaught of information. It’s a dark web of secrets, power and money with ruthless, fiercely competitive entities willing to kill to be the first breakout in the field. I enjoyed the atmosphere and setting of Bangkok, the spies, dirty cops, bribery, I couldn’t trust anyone there. There were twists I didn’t see coming and plenty of harrowing situations. I’ve read and enjoyed many of Mayne’s previous novels, this one left me feeling out of my depth, lost, out of touch. I feel a younger audience will relate much better to the technology than I did.
Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley of Death Stake Trasker #2, by Andrew Mayne Harter, Publication expected 10/29/2024. These personal, honest thoughts and opinions are all mine given voluntarily without compensation.

Thank you Thomas and Mercer and Netgalley for providing the ArC of the second installment of Mayne’s Trasker series. I enjoyed this, but I’m not finding this series/character as engaging as some of the other series by the author. I’d recommend it to those who enjoy Andrew Mayne’s work.

I love reading books by Andrew Mayne. There is never a dull moment in them. I am so glad that someone recommended his books, because I have been hooked on them ever since. I really enjoyed this book. It had of suspense to it and a lot of funny parts. The ending was better than I expected. I'm grateful that netgalley and the publishers let me read this in exchange for an honest review.

In Death Stake, Brad Trasker, retired spy, is working for a company whose latest engine development has been leaked to the Chinese. Now Trasker is heading to Thailand to track down some young cybercurrency experts who appear to have absconded with funds the company invested in their startup. Once in Thailand, the story has double spies, rogue agents, and gangsters. Who can Trasker trust and what is really going on?
It’s not my favorite Andrew Mayne book, but if you enjoy spy novels, give this one a try.
Thanks to Thomas and Mercer and NetGalley for the ARC.

The trail of missing coders leads a spy into an international underworld of treachery, double agents, and digital espionage in a propulsive thriller! Good book! This book was a bit different than my normal read! I definitely think it’s worth reading but it wasn’t one of my top favorites! It had the usual, suspense, intrigue, murder, mystery, action, and a few twists and turns! I would recommend reading this book as it was worth reading! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

Super fun read! I enjoyed the first Trasker book and this one didn't disappoint. Great characters and the plot was heavy but written very well that it wasn't hard to follow. I especially liked the way this book kept you guessing about the good guys and if a character was being honest or lying by omission. The Thailand scenes were very descriptive and added a lot to the storyline. I would have liked to have known what happened to some of the characters after the ending. All-in-all a really good book if you want to go on an adventure. I can't wait for Trasker Book 3! Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the Author for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have read most of Andrew Mayne's books and I've really liked all of them. But this one didn't grab me like the rest, even the previous Trasker book. The back story segues were like listening to an old soldier relive his glory days. Interesting, but they slowed down the narrative. Meanwhile the main story jumped around so much I started to feel like I needed to take notes to keep everything straight.

Spy novels aren't supposed to be realistic or based in fact, but the Trasker series takes unbelievability to an extreme. More bothersome, however, was the manner in which the main character was written. I couldn't stand Brad Trasker or his inner smart-guy monologue for another second. I truly hated Trasker as a character.

I was so disappointed by this book. I loved Andrew Mayne's Underwater Investigation series, but it felt like a completely different author wrote this story. It wasn't what I was expecting at all, and I would have been incredibly bored (which says something considering it's supposed to be an action packed spy novel) if I wasn't so irritated by the main character the entire time I was reading.

If spy novels and obtuse, arrogant characters are your thing, you might like this... but it certainly wasn't my cup of tea.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Retired spy Brad Trasker is back in an excellent sequel that is easily read as a standalone. With an interesting mix of characters and action, the old-school hero battles agents and double agents.