Hard Shadows, a review by Joanna

Reznick is contacted by a lawyer representing a senior government official who has been detained in a psychiatric institution and is claiming that the CIA is about to undertake a false flag operation in South America, which will kill hundreds of innocent Americans, in order to gain control of Venezuela for their natural resources. Initially sceptical, Jon is convinced when people start dying under suspicious circumstances, and ropes in his journalist friend Caroline in the hopes of preventing it.

This series is usually full of action, intrigue and suspense, but unfortunately there’s precious little of either here – most of the plot involves Reznick visiting person after person trying to convince them of the threat, talking a lot, deciding they don’t have enough evidence so finding someone else to talk to. This made the pacing very slow. We know all along what the conspiracy is – a depressingly believable scheme given the current administration – and who the bad guys are, so the only suspense is in whether Jon can stay alive long enough to thwart them. Unusually this one leaves things open-ended, not on a cliffhanger, but without a satisfying resolution. Hopefully this will be addressed in the next book. Recommended for die-hard fans of the series but far from his best.
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC.