Corruption in our Midst has all the elements of a solid thriller—government betrayal, high-stakes action, and a race against time—but it never quite comes together. The characters feel too perfect, the plot too convenient, and the dialogue too stiff to feel truly engaging. Add in a questionable use of real-world conspiracies, and it’s hard to fully enjoy.

Steadily-paced but concerning action thriller debut. Adam Darby takes matters into his own hands when he’s betrayed by his own government. Together with ex-military and special ops retirees, he bands together an incredibly organised team of avengers. While there is some interesting characters and action, with some wholesome romance, I struggled with most of the plot. The characters all work seamlessly and perfectly in unison, as if the same personality. The dialogue feels scripted and overly procedural/professional. There is an unfortunate lack of nuance and variability in tone and plot throughout. Everything works too perfectly. Every connection is too convenient. A helpful friend happens to know a friend who happens to know a friend, and each of them are uniquely skilled and readily available. The romance felt very oddly forced and sudden. There’s also an uncomfortable theme of conspiracy which directly implicates real-life occurrences, namely COVID and a supposed corrupt presidency working with china. While this seems to be harmless fiction, the choice to create characters that take power over a government that eluded to this particular conspiracy, fosters a heavily conservative and irresponsible belief system. Chinese Americans were killed because of this conspiracy. People were killed because of COVID. If choosing conspiracy for fiction, choose outside the realm of real conspiracies that harm human safety.

Corruption in our Midst is a read that has everything I like - good writing, an all to believeable plot line and characters you like and root for. The story flows easily and pulled me in quickly. Adam Darby is betrayed by his employer and finds help from unexpected sources. He, and those alongside him unravel corruption at the highest levels and set out to take down those involved. I really enjoyed this book and liked the different settings and locations. The plot is fast paced and thrilling and Darby and his team are in a race against time to ensure their country is safe. I liked the romance element and the ending gives the story perfect closure and sets up the next book nicely. If you like thrillers with a conspiracy theme I think you'd enjoy this and I'd recommend it.

4 stars