The hero of this novel, Tom Rivers, is a genetically engineered MI5 sleeper agent with a similarly enhanced wife. Together, they face a smart and determined terrorist who is set on taking down the United States government to replace its leaders. The terrorist, Baqri, is financed and helped by a group called The Collective, an organization bent on disruptive regime changes to increase its financial fortunes.

The book’s thrilling storyline covers multiple aerial attacks that result in the death of the populations of two small towns and two attempts on the US President’s life. Tom Rivers lessened the effects of the latter but was thwarted in his attempts to capture Baqri by well-placed members of The Collective.

Unfortunately, the book is not stand-alone and ends without resolution. This is the middle book in a three-part series. While I haven’t read the first book at this point, its significance in character-building didn’t materially hamper my reading as references to the two Rivers' backgrounds are sprinkled throughout The Alpha Particle’s storyline.

I’ve purchased Sleeper, book one in the series, and will do the same when the next book in the Tom River series comes out.

Author T.J. Hawkins does a pretty good job with The Alpha Particle, although it did take me some time to warm up to it. It's not exactly a traditional thriller. It seemed rather implausible and I wondered how far I could go with it, but found that I went all the way, liking the novel more as it went on.
The idea that the public cannot trust the government is not new, and the idea of a "collective" of people running the government from behind the scenes is not new. But here, Hawkins adds a vicious terrorist armed with a severely deadly weapon. That makes things much more interesting,
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

Tom Rivers is your basic British architect until he has a serious accident. When he awakens, he finds his life wasn’t as expected. His skills stretch well beyond that of an architect. Turns out his younger days were spent is training for the highest level of security and espionage. Then his handlers ‘put him to sleep’ to hide his skills only to be activated (awakened) in the event of a potentially catastrophic emergency. Oh, and his wife Luna is a similarly trained sleeper agent.

Russia has a new class of long-range missile capable of hitting targets without warning. If that’s not bad enough, a middle east terrorist, Baqri, has managed to obtain a rare element and gets it weaponized. The Brits and the US get word that Baqri is working to put this rare element on one of those Russian missiles to fire on the US (seems Baqri’s issues with the US aren’t political or ideological. In an earlier life, Tom killed Baqri’s brother. His motivation in pure revenge against both Tom, his wife, and the US in general). Baqri is backed by a mysterious cabal of disaffected billionaires who think they know what’s best for the world – call them The Collective (blood kin to SMERSH of SPECTRE, et al.?).

To get the attention of the US leadership, Baqri fires a missile on a mid-size city in Ohio killing thousands. This mobilizes the US medical community to determine and treat the killing element. The security community is out in force to find the number of missiles Baqri has access to and when/where he might strike again. The sharp end of the US’s spear is Tom and wife Luna.

This is an engaging if (in my opinion) outlandish scheme involving super spies, obsessed lunatic middle easterner, and the author’s version of the Bilderberg Group. While the writing style is polished, the story just seemed to me to be too much, too unbelievable, and entirely unrealistic. One of the things that make thrillers so interesting is the possibility that the story might happen. I had a hard time believing that The Collective exists, that husband/wife sleeper agents are out there unaware of their past only to be awakened to save the world, that such weapons (missiles and biochemical) can be adapted for mass murder and no one is aware.

If you like the impossible, check this out. I’ll just sit idly by in blissful ignorance.

I received an ARC through "NetGalley" and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

This story begins with the test of a new rocket vehicle in Russia. The story then picks up with Tom and Luna going to the U.S. at the request of the President. It seems that 3 of the new rocket types that were being tested have been taken by Baqri's team and now threaten America. Tom and Luna have been tasked with stopping Baqri from what he has planned. Unfortunately, Baqri now has the backing of a powerful group called "The Collective". Baqri has sent the 1st rocket as a warning hitting a town called London, Ohio. The rocket wound up poisoning those in the area. Another rocket was sent impacting a larger area. Baqri then gave the President an ultimatum to perform a task, or the 3rd rocket would cause a lot larger loss of life.

Now the quest began to find Baqri before he could do anything. Luna and the FBI thought they had Baqri cornered, but it seemed that he was prepared and things did not go well for the FBI team and Luna.

To discover what the ultimatum was, what happened to the FBI team and what was the target of the third rocket and why, then you need to read this book.

The ending is unexoected and you don't want to miss out. Pick the book up.

There were so many things I wanted to enjoy about this book. I like a good spy thriller. I LOVE the idea of sleeper agents being activated out of nowhere. I found myself getting drawn into the action over and over. Unfortunately, I was pulled out of it by basic mistakes by the author. It does not seem like the author did much research into the US laws, politics, or economics. The glaring mistakes kept making me roll my eyes. and brought me out of the story repeatedly. I’m fine suspending disbelief for the genetic stuff. It’s sci-fi. Basics were just ignored. I liked the characters. The author went back to the same well too much and there were some plot twists that were far too predictable. I’m in the middle about this one.

I enjoyed this busy, interesting book. There are several lines of the story
the Author does very well and by the time I. made it to the conclusion
I had much to be thankful for in terms of characters with whom I had
been building a relationship and would not be happy If I had to wonder
if they would be around for the next installment. I love the language
of the Author with the colloquial language and phrasing that is just
captivating. This is an easy book to enjoy and I recommend it to
folks who enjoy Military / Political suspense stories. My thanks
to BooksGoSocial via. NetGalley for the download copy of the
book for review purposes..