Hard Wired

In this the third in the Jon Reznick thriller series, the sudden death of a former special forces colleague Charles Burns and his family in a drink-driving accident simply doesn’t ring true to Reznick, because Burns was a confirmed teetotal.

 In a bid to find out more, he gets the help of an IT expert to hack into the police reports, and discovers that Burns’ Mercedes had been fitted with a non-branded transceiver – presumably to increase its performance. But Reznick knows about such transceivers from previous experience, and with a dread feeling in mind, breaks into the police compound to take a look for himself.

 Unfortunately, the break-in is recorded and brought to the attention of the FBI, some of who have no liking for Reznick or his methods and want to bring him down. At first this is resisted by Assistant Director Martha Meyerstein, who has relied on Reznick’s unconventional help in the past. But she’s boxed in by colleagues above and below her as she risks compromising her position for a man who has clearly broken the law. Her situation is further complicated when the heavyweight Department of Homeland Security becomes involved – and there are only so many battles she can fight on Reznick’s behalf.

 Reznick, meanwhile, is unaware that an Iranian kill squad is on his trail, having marked him and his former Delta Force colleagues down for assassination in revenge for the death of an Iranian scientist which they were involved in years before.

 Tracing the origins of the transceiver from the crashed car, Reznick discovers that it was part of a batch manufactured by a US company and shipped to Teheran, and modified to be used in assassinating political figures by taking over the car it was fitted to and making it crash at high speed.

 Soon it becomes a tense race to see who gets to Reznick first; the law-enforcement agencies who want to lock him up, or the Iranian kill-team who want to finish off the former Delta Force members and especially Reznick, their leader.

 Fast-moving and up-to-the-minute, this is by far Turner’s best book yet. Full of action, it further cements the sometimes tense relationship between the two friends - Reznick on one side, distrustful of the people surrounding Meyerstein, and Meyerstein herself, who feels loyal to Resnick, while knowing she is going out on a career limb for him and fighting very powerful forces trying to bring him down.

 A must-read for conspiracy and action-series fans, this book moves JB Turner and the Reznick–Meyerstein pairing firmly to the upper ranks of current thriller writing.