Rick Klau reviewed The Night Trade by Barry Eisler
Review of 'The Night Trade' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I really enjoyed the first book in this series, but found the sequel to be less compelling. The main character is a complex, dark character who's fighting considerable demons. There is no question what motivates her, and I definitely enjoy that she's not the cardboard cutout traditional thriller hero.
But the book didn't work as much for me because the plot moved along at such a brisk pace, without a ton of drama because at every plot point that a character needed to manipulate something - video feeds, door locks, guns, cars, you name it - they did so effortlessly. (And while I share Eisler's concern about the surveillance state, and the surprising advances in the tech state actors can deploy in service of monitoring people... it often felt inserted into the plot to make sure we saw how bad it could be.)
Ultimately, I felt Livia was a bit …
I really enjoyed the first book in this series, but found the sequel to be less compelling. The main character is a complex, dark character who's fighting considerable demons. There is no question what motivates her, and I definitely enjoy that she's not the cardboard cutout traditional thriller hero.
But the book didn't work as much for me because the plot moved along at such a brisk pace, without a ton of drama because at every plot point that a character needed to manipulate something - video feeds, door locks, guns, cars, you name it - they did so effortlessly. (And while I share Eisler's concern about the surveillance state, and the surprising advances in the tech state actors can deploy in service of monitoring people... it often felt inserted into the plot to make sure we saw how bad it could be.)
Ultimately, I felt Livia was a bit too perfect at each step of the book. She wanted to kill the bad guys, she killed them. The original setup for why she was even in Thailand disappeared from the book entirely until the final chapter, except for her mysterious handler who conveniently was just a phone call away to do master surveillance stuff on her behalf.
I was glad to see Livia again, but felt less fulfilled by this particular journey.
