The Gryphon Heist by James R. Hannibal/Review by G. Robert Frazier
The Gryphon Heist
by James R. Hannibal
Oceanview Publishing
$29.99
ISBN 978-0800737139
Publication Date: Sept 3, 2019
*Killer Nashville is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. If you purchase a book from the links on this page, Amazon will give Killer Nashville a small percentage of the total sale. Killer Nashville receives zero compensation from publishers who have been selected for the Book of the Day.
2020 Silver Falchion Finalist
The Gryphon Heist by James R. Hannibal has been compared to Ocean’s Eleven meets Mission Impossible, and that’s a more than adequate comparison. Certainly, the wide range of characters – each with specialized skills and attributes – are there, as are the thrills and twists associated with such thrillers. Like those movies, I could easily visualize this novel coming to life on the big screen.
Heist starts in typical thriller fashion as we are introduced to protagonist Talia Inger in a Star Trek-like “kobyashi maru” final exam of her CIA training. She fails (Captain Kirk, as you know, cheated), but shows enough ingenuity and determination that she makes a favorable impression. Her reward: an assignment to Other, a literal hole-in-the-wall division nestled in a sub-sub-basement at CIA headquarters.
Not exactly what she was expecting.
Talia, though, makes enough waves in the days that follow that she wins a field assignment: to evaluate the security measures of a Moldovan executive developing a new defense technology. She’s coupled (or should I say hog-tied) with a freelance civilian partner, Adam Tyler, to assist her, though she’s more than wary of Tyler’s true purpose on the mission.
After an attack on the facility by a suspected international terrorist known only as Lukon, Talia is surprised to learn the defense designs are safely stored on the Gryphon, a high-tech aircraft roving in the mesosphere above earth.
Together with a hastily assembled team of uniquely qualified individuals – a pilot, a grifter, a tech geek, and others — Talia launches a bold plan to steal the designs in mid-flight to keep them out of enemy hands. But treachery and double-crosses abound and it isn’t long before Talia suspects Tyler may not be as innocent as he seems and wonders if he is, in fact, the notorious Lukon himself.
A former tactical deception officer and stealth pilot, Hannibal draws on his own expertise and familiarity with covert operations to bring a level of verisimilitude to the novel. A fair dose of cyber-tech jargon is cleverly weaved into the explosive action.
While I am was a bit dubious that a rookie CIA agent would be thrust into the middle of such an intense, high-stakes adventure on her very first field assignment – and I didn’t like that a main character is linked to the death of her father years ago (too coincidental or contrived for my liking) — I didn’t let either of those factors stop me from enjoying the novel as a whole. There’s too much action and intrigue here to let a few little nit-picky things like that get in the way.
Hannibal writes with such skill and authenticity – as well as emotion – that you are immediately wrapped up in the tale at hand. A sequel, Chasing the White Lion, is already on bookshelves (and in my to-be-read stack), so readers should hurry and get in on the ground floor of this new series now. It’s definitely worth the ride.
G. Robert Frazier is a former newspaper reporter and editor. He reviews books for Killer Nashville, BookPage, Chapter 16, and his blog. He has served as a script reader for both the Austin Film Festival and Nashville Film Festival screenwriting competitions and is a member of the Tennessee Screenwriting Association.