Oath of Honor by Matthew Betley

Matthew Betley set the bar high with his debut action thriller, Overwatch, a year ago and now with his second novel, Oath of Honor, he’s completely blown the lid off the joint. Oath of Honor is one of the best thrillers I’ve read in the last year. Best in the last 5 years. The action starts on page one and simply doesn’t let up.

The action starts when a piece of top secret equipment is stolen from the U.S. Government in Alaska. A high-tech piece of satellite hacking equipment that must not be allowed to fall into enemy hands. Logan West and John Quick are hot on the trail and once again are racing across the U.S., Europe and the Sudan in a race to stop a global conspiracy aimed at the United States and its interests. The involvement of Russian, Chinese and North Korean elements make it especially difficult to unravel.

Betley excels with cinematic action pieces. Battles on a North Korean freighter, an off the books prison in the Sudan, a cemetery in Khartoum and a mining facility outside of Las Vegas are among the most thrilling. Painting a picture that propels you along and takes your breath away is an exhilarating experience. Betley does this time and time again. The pace of this story is so fast it may burn your hands.

In Logan West and John Quick, Betley has created strong likeable main characters that make it easy to believe why others would walk through fire for them and why they do it for each other. He is also adept at adding new characters such as Cole and Amira who quickly become integral parts of the story and the team. As good as each of the first two books have been, the ending teases at much more excitement to come.

Matthew Betley is no longer chasing the pack of thriller writers, he’s leading it. Oath of Honor is one of the most exciting books you’ll read this year. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book.

Description: A break-neck, edge-of-your-seat thriller that moves from a resurgent Russian threat in the Aleutian Islands to North Korean spy ships to secret Sudanese prisons as former Marines Logan West and John Quick, now members of an FBI special task force, uncover a global conspiracy that threatens America’s position in the current international balance of power.

Logan West and John Quick are sent to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to investigate the possible presence of a Russian black ops team on a mission to steal United States next-generation technology. The resulting violent confrontation triggers a global search for the stolen technology and threatens to pit the US against China in a looming shadow war and technology race. As Logan and John—joined by the chief of the CIA’s Special Operations Group, Cole Matthews—battle their way through Spain, the Mediterranean, and ultimately, across Sudan, an imminent threat arises at home that FBI Deputy Director Mike Benson must face and determine if it is part of the deadly global conspiracy.