In this high-stakes thriller, Irish half-siblings Connor Pierce and Lenka Brett must track down a group of mercenaries who hijack a charitable aid convoy coordinated by Lenka to help alleviate suffering in war-torn Ukraine.
Final Adversary, part of a series featuring the protagonists, opens with a bang. Two aid-workers have guns to their heads, captives of the Wagner group, rogue mercenaries operating for Russia—and themselves—in southeast Ukraine. The commander of the Wagner group is using the aid workers to settle a score with Lenka, an old foe.
When the news reaches them in the orphanage they run in Ireland, Lenka and Connor decide to run one more aid convoy, this time a dummy operation, to flush out which old enemy is behind the attack and take them down. But Lenka doesn’t know this will be Connor’s final mission. Her brother has terminal cancer.
A hitman with connections to MI6, Connor is an intriguing character: capable of great violence but also tenderness, particularly toward children. Facing cancer, Connor is motivated to leave Lenka safe from her enemies and will kill to make that happen.
Connor plans the dummy aid convoy through Poland, which attracts the interest of American Intelligence operatives and the German attaché to NATO. With President Biden in Warsaw, Connor’s presence is not entirely welcome, adding to the intrigue and resulting in some well-crafted plot twists.
Author John Righten effectively brings numerous international settings to life with sharp descriptions, including rural Ireland, London and Warsaw cityscapes, and bombed-out homes in Kyiv. However, his large cast of characters at times feels unwieldy. Additionally, editing issues, including incorrect dates of flashbacks, can be distracting. And to appreciate the emotional arc of Connor’s journey, particularly in the final scenes, readers should start with the series’ prior books.
Overall, though, this is an enjoyable contemporary thriller that will appeal to fans of John Wick-style, high-octane adventure stories.
Also available in hardcover and ebook.